Emphasising that his government will be tough on illegal infiltrators, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) said his government will follow a new policy of “detect, delete and deport” when it comes to illegal infiltrators.
“Those not covered under CAA [Citizenship (Amendment) Act] they are are completely illegal infiltrators. The State police will arrest them and hand to them to BSF. The BSF will hold talks with BDR [Border Guards Bangladesh] and try to deport them. This means a policy of detect, delete and deport,” the Chief Minister said.
Mr. Adhikari said said and State’s Director General of Police and Home Secretary has been informed that in all police stations along the border of the State this law from today comes into force in the interest of the country and West Bengal.
The Chief Minister made the remarks at an event at the State Secretariat where the West Bengal government handed over land to the Border Security Force (BSF) for construction of border fencing along 27 km of India Bangladesh border across five districts of the State.
The announcement of handing over the land to the border guarding force was held at the State Secretariat Nabanna Building and Director General of BSF Praveen Kumar was present along with officials of West Bengal government.
A total of 31.9 cacres of land was purchased by the State government from the farmers and handed over to the BSF. One of the promises made by the BJP during the West Bengal Assembly polls that once it comes to power it will hand over the land for border fencing to the BSF.
“In West Bengal, around 1,600 km of the total 2,200 km border with Bangladesh has already been fenced, while nearly 600 km still remains unfenced. Wherever land is needed for fencing and border security, we will hand it over to the BSF,” the Chief Minister said.
Mr. Adhikari claimed that for the last several years, coordination meetings between the BSF, State police and administration in bordering areas had not happened, district-level coordination mechanism had now been revived.
“The district coordination meetings have now started and these will happen regularly now,” the Chief Minister said.
Mr. Adhikari said that previous Trinamool Congress government was not serious as far as the issue of illegal infiltration was concerned.
“A letter was sent by the Centre to the State last year regarding the direct handover of infiltrators to the BSF, but the previous government failed to implement this important provision. We have now enforced it,” he said.
Published - May 21, 2026 11:59 am IST
Source: The Hindu - India News
