Murshidabad completes land handover to BSF for border fencing

Murshidabad has become the first district in West Bengal to complete 100 per cent of the land handover process for the construction of fencing along the India-Bangladesh border. The district administration handed over the remaining 28.65 acres to the BSF through a ‘Right of Possession’ for fencing a 3.86-kilometre stretch in Char Chandanpur and Hazrahati Mirganj. The Murshidabad district administration on Thursday completed the phase-wise handover of land to the BSF for fencing projects along a 48.9km stretch of the India-Bangladesh border. District magistrate R. Arjun told reporters that the entire 362.89 acres identified for the India-Bangladesh border fencing and roads projects had been handed over to the BSF.
In all, 334.24 acres have been handed over to the BSF for fencing nearly 48 kilometres of the border in the district. The move comes after the state government decided to hand over around 1,025 acres across nine Bangladesh-bordering districts for construction of border fencing and BSF outposts. According to administrative sources, Murshidabad has been given the highest priority for border fencing as the district has emerged as one of the major ‘safe routes’ for Bangladeshi infiltrators in recent years.
Bengal shares about 2,217km of the 4096km-long India-Bangladesh international boundary — the longest stretch among states.