As Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari initiates work on border fencing, Bangladesh says ‘not afraid of barbed wires’

A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari chaired the first cabinet meeting and transferred land to the Border Security Force (BSF) for erecting a fence along the Bangladesh border, Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's foreign affairs adviser, M Humayun Kabir, said that barbed wires “do not intimidate” the country and its leadership.

“Bangladesh is not afraid of barbed wire. Where we need to talk, we will talk,” a local Bangladesh online portal cited Humayun Kabir as saying.

The Bangladesh prime minister's adviser also said that the Indian government “must demonstrate a more humane approach” in addressing the border issues. “We don't want to become involved in their internal politics. Our relationship is primarily with the central government,” he said.

In his first cabinet meeting, attended by five ministers who were sworn in, the chief minister also decided to include West Bengal in multiple central government schemes, including the Ayushman Bharat health insurance programme.

The Ayushman Bharat health coverage provides cashless hospitalisation coverage of ₹5,00,000 per family per year to poor and vulnerable families for secondary and tertiary healthcare services. Other central schemes, including PM Jan Arogya Yojna, PM Fasal Bima Yojna, which offers crop insurance for farmers, PM Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme for upgrading state-run schools, and PM Viswakarma scheme supporting artisans and craftspeople, will also be implemented.

The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme for women's education and empowerment, and the Ujwala 3.0 scheme for subsidised cooking gas connections would also be implemented in the state.

After the meeting, Suvendu Adhikari told reporters: “In the backdrop of steadily changing demography in Bengal's bordering districts, our cabinet has approved the beginning of the process of handing over necessary land to the BSF for setting up border fences. The chief secretary and the secretary of the state's land and land revenue department have been asked to complete the process of land transfer within the next 45 days.”

He also alleged that the previous Trinamool government had ignored last year's circular, intimating the state government about the impending Census exercise in the state.

The Bengal chief minister said, “The TMC government betrayed the Constitution and the people and deliberately kept the Census exercise on hold in Bengal so that women's reservation could be stopped. The cabinet has granted immediate sanction for the circular to take effect in the state.”

The chief minister also alleged that the new criminal law, Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), replacing the erstwhile IPC and CrPC, wasn't officially implemented by the TMC government in the state and said the first cabinet meeting granted official sanction to the new law to come into force.

(With agency inputs)