Overview
- On Sunday, September 20, 2026, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced that cases filed by the previous Trinamool Congress government against Kurmi protesters during the 2025 agitation will be withdrawn.
- The state has allocated Rs 50 crore this year and said it will reactivate the Kurmi Development Board to fund cultural projects, jobs and local infrastructure with further increases promised as needed.
- West Bengal said it will send a “Further Common Justification Report” to the Centre to press for listing the Kurmi community as a Scheduled Tribe and reported that the Centre has begun steps on Kurmali and Rajbanshi inclusion in the Constitution’s Eighth Schedule.
- Adhikari said the Kurmi community will be kept outside any proposed Uniform Civil Code through a state committee and submissions to a Supreme Court forum, and he pledged to block unscientific commercial mining or auctioning of Purulia’s hills.
- The 2025 protests grew from long-running Kurmi demands for ST status and language recognition, and the government’s actions—legal withdrawal, funding and identity bids—could ease legal burdens and alter access to state benefits while reshaping local political and development priorities; large investment claims reported by some outlets remain less corroborated and should be treated as unconfirmed.