Bengal Assembly passes resolution against BSF’s new jurisdiction
On November 16, the Bengal Legislative Assembly became the second one after Punjab to move a resolution opposing the Home Ministry’s recent order extending BSF’s jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km of the international border, and demanded the order’s immediate withdrawal.
The Bengal Assembly on Tuesday, November 16 passed a resolution against the Union government’s decision to extend the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) from 15 to 50 km of the international border in the state.
The Congress-led Punjab government had passed a similar resolution on November 11. The October 11 order of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, amending the BSF Act and extending the paramilitary force’s jurisdiction by 35 km (from the current 15 km) from the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh in Punjab, Bengal and Assam, has witnessed protests in the first two non-BJP-ruled states. Assam, where the BJP is in power, has remained silent.
Bengal’s border with Bangladesh runs along 10 of the state’s 23 districts, from Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri in the north to North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas in the south.
The Trinamool government has argued that BSF’s new jurisdiction will cover more than 30 per cent of Bengal’s territory, including many important towns, and it goes against the country’s federal structure by which law and order is the state’s responsibility, and the resolution spells out as much.
“The House feels that this increase in the territorial jurisdiction of the BSF is beyond the mandate of the BSF Act, and is against the spirit of federalism, since maintaining law and order comes under the purview of the State.”
Further, the resolution said that “the notification would result in a lack of coordination between the BSF and the state police regarding their respective jurisdiction, and result in the curtailment of the power of the state police to maintain law and order in the state”.
Hence, “the notification … not be brought into effect” and “must be withdrawn with immediate effect”.
The news agency PTI said that the resolution was passed with the support of 112 legislators.
It also reported that the resolution was opposed by 63 legislators from the BJP. In fact, during the debate, the leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari demanded that BSF’s jurisdiction be increased to at least 80 km in Bengal, reasoning that the state has turned into a hub for terror groups such as the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
