Adhikari cabinet approves BSF land transfer for border fencing, initiates Census exercise in Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari chaired the first cabinet meeting on Monday and said his government has granted transfer of land to the BSF for erecting a fence along the Bangladesh border and approved immediate implementation of the Census exercise in the state. The meeting, attended by the five ministers sworn in so far, also decided to induct Bengal into multiple central government schemes, including the Ayushman Bharat health coverage programme. The Ayushman Bharat aims to provide cashless hospitalisation coverage of Rs 5,00,000 per family per year to poor and vulnerable families for secondary and tertiary healthcare services. “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,” Adhikari told reporters while briefing about the meeting.

Adhikari alleged that the previous Mamata Banerjee-led TMC dispensation had ignored a circular, dated June 16, 2025, that was sent to the West Bengal government from the Office of the Registrar General of India under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, intimating about the impending Census exercise in the state. “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,” Adhikari said. The chief minister also alleged that the new criminal law of 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 has granted official sanction to the new law to come into force.