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Bengal Cabinet approves land acquisition for India-Bangladesh border fencing
The moves comes amid tensions between the two countries over the construction of barbed wire fencing along some stretches of the frontier and cross-border clashes between farmers
The West Bengal Cabinet has given the go-ahead for acquiring land for the Border Security Force (BSF) to fence the India-Bangladesh border at Karimpur in the Nadia district amid tensions between the two countries over the construction of barbed wire fencing along some stretches of the frontier and cross-border clashes between farmers.
“The Cabinet gave in-principle approval on Monday. The land procurement through the district-level committee will start soon. We will soon inform the Union home ministry to place the fund with the committee,” said an official.
West Bengal shares a 2,216 km border with Bangladesh. Some stretches of the porous border remain unfenced and vulnerable to infiltration and smuggling.
A BSF officer said fencing has helped bring down criminal activities along the border. “The fence would have helped both nations to check cross-border crimes.”
The BSF on Friday said it unearthed three underground chambers, within less than two km of the border in Nadia district, and seized phensedyl cough syrup to be smuggled to Bangladesh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress of not acquiring land for border fencing and jeopardising national security. “The issue of national security is paramount and transcends everything. So, it is not that the state government has done something noble by giving a nod for acquiring land for fencing. In no other state, we have seen such a thing between the government and the BSF over land. The state has to come forward,” said BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.
TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar said the BJP can never come to power in West Bengal and had it been possible the party would have handed over the entire state to the BSF. “Border security is the responsibility of the BSF. If the BSF cannot secure the border without getting some small stretches of land, they should tell us. We will manage.”
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has accused BSF of intimidating villagers along the border. Ahead of the 2021 assembly elections, the TMC complained to the Election Commission of India that the BSF threatened villagers. The BSF denied the charges.
The TMC opposed the Union government’s move to increase the BSF’s jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km. Banerjee raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2021.
