More border outposts on anvil

The Union Home Ministry,sources said,had been insisting on expediting the process of acquisition of land for the BOPs for the last few years.

“The state government will shortly issue a notice for acquisition of 59 acres in the border areas of North 24-Parganas for setting up of the outposts,” a senior official said.

“The files relating to acquisition of land for the outposts are being cleared on a war footing because it involves the question of national security,” the official added.

Earlier,the District Magistrates of all the border districts were asked to look for vested lands if there was any trouble in acquiring the land for outposts. “No acquisition related difficulties have cropped up so far,” the official pointed out.

In order to stop infiltration through Bangladesh border,the Centre had instructed the state government to expedite the process of land acquisition,but not much effort was given to the issue by the previous Left Front government as it feared trouble in acquisition of land,said the official.

“When P Chidambaram was the union Home Minister,he had written to former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee requesting him to personally to accelerate the process of land acquisition for setting up of the outposts,” the official added.

At present,there are 410 BOPs in Bengal. Of them,230 are in south Bengal districts while 180 in north Bengal districts.

The Centre has planned to set up 223 new BOPs in Bengal and 160 more in Meghalaya,Assam,Tripura and Mizoram.