Sir,
“Bangalae bhori thoboloi thai palae xuboloi janae”---so goes a saying in Assam for the Bengalis. This means that, if a Bengali migrant gets a chance to gain foothold in any place, the fellow knows to spread out and proliferate in number. In Assam there are places where there might not be an Assamese, but in all places one will find Bengalis.

In all the railway junctions laid by the British, the colonial masters brought clerks and petty officials from Kolkata and Dhaka . Today there are Bengali colonies surrounding all small and big railway stations in Assam like Pandu in Guwahati, Mariani in Jorhat, Rangapara near Tezpur, Tinisukia, Diphu, Haflong, Lumding etc. Even today 98% of the jobs in Northeast Frontier railways are in the grip of Bengalis. With a Bengali Union Railway Minister, the Bengali lobby is gaining further strength. Unlike in other states of India , the entire north-east is a divided lot and they don’t protest unitedly against Bengali dominance in NF Railways.

Yours faithfully,
Raktim Pegu
Dikhowmukh, Sivasagar