Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai on Wednesday blamed the West Bengal government for “cross border infiltration” cases reported along the Bangladesh Border. In a written response in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister, however, stated that the number of such cases had “reduced in 2020 viz-a-viz 2016.”
Responding to a question in the Upper House, Mr. Rai said that a 60 kilometre length along the Bangladesh border had not been fenced as 33 land acquisition proposals were pending with the West Bengal government. “Infiltrators try to cross from the non-fenced border, but the Border Security Force (BSF) successfully stops them,” he said.
He added that from 2016 to 2019, the total number of complaints of cross border infiltration stood at 2548, but only 2,104 First Information Reports (FIR) were registered.
During the same period, the number of accused named in FIRs stood at 4,189, but only 4,072 were arrested. Chargesheets were filed in 1,134 cases, but conviction was achieved only in 212 cases, he said.
“BSF catches the suspects and hands them over to the local police. However, the State police does not act with the sincerity it should,” he claimed.
He said the total length of the border was 2,126 kilometres of which 319 kilometres cannot be fenced due to topographical constraints.
