Kolkata: In four months till Sept, Bengal govt has handed over 1,177.1 acres of land to BSF for fencing along sensitive areas of the India-Bangladesh border. While MHA has provided funds for the purchase of 1,270.3 acres of land, 93.1 acres of land is yet to be transferred.Per information from the home department (till Sept 7), out of nine bordering districts, handing over of land has been completed in Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur and Darjeeling.The highest amount of land has been awarded in Murshidabad with 362.8 acres, followed by North 24 Parganas with 243.7 acres. Malda comes third on this list with 247.7 acres of land handed over and only 11.6 acres remaining.In Nadia, 113.3 acres of land has been handed over with the balance being 8.9 acres. In Cooch Behar, although the amount of land given is 165.4 acres, the balance to be handed over is 44.8 acres — the highest among all districts.In Jalpaiguri, the process of land handover has been slow, with 8 acres of land given and 10.2 acres in the balance list. In South Dinajpur, 19.9 acres of land out of 47 acres is yet to be handed over.According to official data, Bengal shares a 2,216.7-km border with Bangladesh, out of which over 563 km in length remained unfenced when BJP assumed office in the state in May. In the very first cabinet meeting held on May 11, the land transfer to BSF to strengthen border security was approved. It was a commitment of Union home minister Amit Shah before the elections.CM Suvendu Adhikari, on several occasions, has stressed the importance of strengthening border security and reiterated that there will be no compromise on national security and nationalism under his govt. He has alleged that the previous govt deliberately prevented the home department from taking steps for securing the border as it wanted to protect certain vote banks and allowed illegal infiltrators from outside India.Addressing the Bengal assembly on June 18, Governor RN Ravi hailed state govt’s prompt move to prevent infiltration and presented data on land transferred within 10 days of Adhikari taking oath as chief minister.Meanwhile, district magistrates and the land and land reforms department have been asked to expedite the entire process, which will curb infiltration of illegal migrants across the border through construction of residual fencing.Apart from Bangladesh, Bengal also shares international borders with Bhutan and Nepal.
