Kolkata, May 21 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has directed the police department and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) authorities to directly send arrested illegal infiltrators from other countries to the nearest Border Security Force (BSF) border outposts instead of producing them before courts.

Earlier, CM Adhikari said that the system of handing over illegal infiltrators directly to the BSF had come into force in West Bengal with immediate effect from Wednesday.

On Thursday, he held a meeting with police and RPF authorities and directed them to send arrested illegal infiltrators to the nearest BSF Border Outposts (BoPs) instead of presenting them before courts.

“Henceforth, if any illegal infiltrator is arrested either at Howrah station or anywhere else, they will not be produced before the court. Instead, they will be provided food and sent directly to the BSF BoPs either at the Benapole-Petrapole border outpost in Bangaon subdivision or at the one in Basirhat, both in North 24 Parganas district,” CM Adhikari told mediapersons.

However, he clarified that the new system would not apply to those coming as refugees and who are eligible for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Political observers feel that such a strong step initiated by the Chief Minister goes a step ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) announced “detect-delete-deport” policy against illegal infiltrators, which Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also promised during his pre-election campaigns in West Bengal.

He also said that his office would maintain weekly updates on the number of illegal infiltrators arrested and sent to BSF outposts.

“I have directed the state Director General of Police to send weekly reports on this matter to my office,” the Chief Minister said.

One of the BJP’s main campaign planks before the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections was not only to prevent illegal immigration but also to free the state of illegal infiltrators allegedly staying there using fake Indian identity documents.

The process of handing over land to the BSF for erecting barbed fencing along unfenced stretches of the India-Bangladesh border in the state had already started on Wednesday to achieve the first objective of preventing illegal infiltration.

Now, the process for achieving the second objective of deporting illegal infiltrators will begin following the Chief Minister’s direction to the state police and the RPF in the matter.

–IANS

src/pgh