This image is for representational purposes only. | Photo credit: The Hindu
One of the key reasons behind the delay in acquiring land for fencing along the Bangladesh border in West Bengal was the policies followed by the former Trinamool Congress government, according to a 2023 affidavit filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Supreme Court.
The MHA, through an affidavit, informed the Supreme Court that the West Bengal government had not passed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR Act), 2013, under which the government can take over any land required for public purposes.
The state government has instead followed a policy of outright land purchase that was adopted in 2016, including for national security projects such as border fencing. Under the policy, zilla parishads or municipal corporations would acquire land from landowners for important infrastructural projects such as “food dumps, roads, bridges etc” which “have not been fully operationalized due to lack of small plots”. Funds were allocated to the municipal body or zilla farada by the administrative department, which then made the payment to the landowner.
Then Union Home Minister Ajay Kumar Bhalla said in an affidavit, “The West Bengal government has been following a much slower and more complicated policy of direct land acquisition, even for national security projects like border fencing. Due to the non-cooperation of the state government in dealing with various land acquisition issues, there has been considerable delay in acquiring the necessary land, which is preventing the timely completion of state borders in Bengal, which is essential for the timely completion of national security in Bengal. project.”
On May 11, soon after it first came to power in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government announced that it had decided to transfer the land to the Border Security Force (BSF) within the next 45 days.
According to submissions made in the Calcutta High Court in January, the West Bengal government has handed over 78 km of border land to the BSF in the past three years, with 121 km of the border remaining to be transferred. Of the 285.25 km length of border required by the BSF across nine districts, including Nadia, North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Malda, Dakshin Dinajpur, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar, the state cabinet has given permission for 256 km.
Data submitted to the court showed that the purchase of land measuring around 269 acres along the 48.49 km border has been completed but has not yet been handed over to the BSF. The data further showed that the purchase and acquisition of around 1,156 acres remained outstanding.
While hearing a public interest litigation, the Calcutta High Court asked lawyers for the state and the Union government “about the applicability and feasibility of the acquisition invoking Section 40 of the 2013 Act”.
Section 40 of the 2013 Act “in cases of urgency” allows the appropriate government to take over land required for public purposes. The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal is 22,16.7 km, of which 1,647,696 km is already fenced.
The MHA informed Parliament last year that of the remaining 569,004 km still to be covered by fencing and other border infrastructure works, 112,780 km are not feasible for fencing and 456,224 km are feasible for fencing construction and related works.
Published – 13 May 2026 02:25 IST
