India’s West Bengal government on Wednesday handed over an initial 75 acres of land to BSF to cover fencing of 27 km of the international border between India and Bangladesh, reported The Times of India on Thursday.

West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari, who earlier promised to start the land handover process after the BJP government assumed office, said that completion of the critical, long-pending fencing along the India-Bangladesh border would be crucial to national security, added the report available online.

Of the land, 43 acres were directly purchased, while 32 acres were vested land.

Adhikari said, ‘The BSF had been asking for the land for a long time, but it was denied earlier by the previous govt. Our safety was at stake for that. The new govt is now ready and land was transferred to BSF. This includes land for border outposts and infrastructure development land for BSF.’

The BSF DG Praveen Kumar was present at the event held at Nabanna.

While India shares over 4,000 km of border with Bangladesh, 2,200 km run through Bengal. As much as 1,600 km is fenced.

‘The problem is with the 600 km which we could not fence so far,’ Adhikari said.

‘The previous govt could have provided land for fencing 555 km. But even after the centre’s repeated requests, because of their appeasement policy and vote-bank politics, the previous disposition did not give land to the BSF,’ the CM added.

The CM said that he had asked the district magistrates of border districts to maintain regular coordination with BSF and other central agencies.