Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked Cooch Behar Police not to allow Border Security Force beyond 50 kms from the international borders. This move of hers may provoke the BJP government at the Centre.
Mamata alleged that BSF is beating people. She said, “BSF is entering the villages and beating people while also throwing them on the other side of the international border”.
In a virtual meet with state police officers Mamata said, “Don’t allow BSF to enter 50 kms of the area beyond the international border in the state because they are entering the village, killing people and throwing them on the other side. Ask the BSF to take state police in confidence while working on any operation.”
Last year the rule was revised by the Centre. The central government had amended the BSF Act to authorise the border guarding force to undertake search, seizure and arrest within a 50 kms stretch. Previously the radius was 15 kms, from the international border in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam.
This amendment had triggered a political row over the role of the BSF and the state police for maintaining the law and order.
Punjab and West Bengal governments even passed resolutions in November last year. They passed resolutions against the Centre’s decision to extend the BSF jurisdiction from 15 kms to 50 kms of the international borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. They asked the central government to withdraw the order passed on October 11, 2021.
For many years, the central and West Bengal government have been at odds over a variety of issues, particularly the state’s law and order situation.
Mamata in a meeting with state police, even claimed that the law and order situation is good in the state. She blamed media for spreading misinformation. She said that some sections of the media are deliberately spreading misinformation, and that cases are lodged in West Bengal but not in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
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