Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has reportedly directed the principal secretary of the state Land department to file an affidavit in a public interest litigation seeking barbed-wire fencing along the India–Bangladesh border.
The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul is learnt to have observed that the state must explain why the required land has not been handed over to the Union Home Ministry despite the Centre’s claim that funds have been released for acquiring 181 km of land.
After the state files its affidavit, the Centre may also respond if it has any counter-submissions. The matter is scheduled to be heard again on December 22. Earlier, the court had granted the Bengal government an additional week to submit a status report on the steps taken to complete fencing along vulnerable stretches of the India–Bangladesh border.
The plea, moved by Lt. General Subrata Saha (Retd), former Deputy Chief of Army Staff and currently executive
chairman of the Manekshaw Centre for National Security Studies and Research, raises concerns over what it terms a “persistent security vulnerability” arising from unfenced portions of the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal.
According to the petition, the Union Home Ministry has made significant allocations for border fencing, but progress in the state has been hampered by delays in land acquisition. Out of the 2,216.7-km stretch of the international border, several segments remain unfenced, the plea states.