KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has handed over 142.79 acres of land to the Border Security Force (BSF) for setting up outposts (OPs) and barbed-wire fencing infrastructure along the India-Bangladesh border.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari made the announcement official through a social media post on Wednesday night, providing district-wise details of the land transfer along the border.
Murshidabad, one of the most vulnerable border districts frequently reporting Bangladeshi infiltration, received the highest allocation at 38.805 acres, followed by Jalpaiguri with 35.165 acres.
Cooch Behar and South Dinajpur received 22.95 acres and 20.1701 acres, respectively, while Malda district was allotted 10.90 acres.
“Govt of WB has initiated intensified measures to strengthen border security by facilitating construction of BSF outposts and barbed-wire fencing, further enhancing security in the border areas. Additional land has now been handed over to BSF, taking the total tally to 142.79 acres,” Suvendu said in the social media post.
At its first cabinet meeting held at the state secretariat Nabanna on May 11, the Bengal BJP government had decided to begin the process of handing over 600 acres of land within 45 days to the BSF for border fencing and other infrastructure projects.
On May 20, the Chief Minister transferred a 27-km stretch of land to the BSF for long-pending fencing projects along the India-Bangladesh border in the state. He also announced that infiltrators would be arrested by the state police and handed over directly to the BSF instead of being produced before a court.
Addressing a press conference at Nabanna alongside BSF officials, the Chief Minister of the first BJP government in the state said that land covering the initial 27-km stretch would be transferred to the force within two weeks.
With this move, a larger border security initiative involving transfer of land required for border infrastructure formally began.
Suvendu also announced the implementation of a process for the direct handover of “infiltrators” to the BSF by the state police, asserting that communities not covered under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) would be detained and deported with immediate effect.
He claimed that the Central government had issued a directive last year to the previous Trinamool Congress administration asking it to directly hand over illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators to the BSF. However, according to him, the Mamata Banerjee-led government did not implement the directive, whereas “we did it after coming to power for the first time in the state.”
“We will protect our state as well as the country strongly by maintaining regular coordination between our government and BSF authorities. Our previous state government had opposed the CAA,” Suvendu told reporters.
Clarifying the move regarding who would be deported, Suvendu said, “People who have come to Bengal by December 31, 2024, won’t be harassed or detained by police. According to the CAA, people belonging to seven communities are covered by the Act. But people who are not within the purview of the CAA are illegal infiltrators. Police will arrest them and hand them over to the BSF. Following talks with the BGB, these infiltrators will be pushed back to Bangladesh. This means ‘detect, delete and deport’.”
In 2025, the Union Home Ministry stated that individuals belonging to minority communities, specifically Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan would be exempted from standard passport and travel document requirements. The provision applies to those who entered India by December 31, 2024, after seeking refuge from religious persecution.
