On Wednesday (April 26), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stirred the hornet’s nest by claiming that the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel have been committing atrocities on villagers in the State.
During a press conference at Nabanna (State Secretariat), she alleged, “I have come to know that BSF personnel are going to villages and harassing people in areas that fall under their jurisdiction.”
“Law and order is a State subject. This is not the work of BSF. If cows go missing, then, they file a case against the Trinamool Congress,” Mamata alleged.
She claimed that the Union Home Minister is responsible for the protection of cows. “How do cows end up in West Bengal from other places? We don’t want such smuggling in our State,” Mamata Banerjee was heard saying.
“Why would you send cows from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal border and then blame it on TMC for cow smuggling? Is this some kind of a joke? I want to alert everyone about such conspiracies (by the Centre),” she brazened it out.
As per reports, the West Chief Minister also accused the Border Security Force of assaulting and killing villagers and even dumping them on the other side of the international border.
“Don’t allow BSF to enter 50 km of the area beyond the international border in the state because they are entering the village, killing people, and throwing them on the other side. Ask the BSF to take state police in confidence while working on any operation,” she was quoted as saying.
West Bengal CM accuses BSF of conspiring with BJP in elections
On April 17 this year, the West Bengal CM hit out at the Union government for increasing the area of jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) from 15 km to 50 km.
“Why did they do this? Because they know Panchayat elections are coming and that the new operation limit will cover several villages that will cast their vote. In this way, the BSF personnel can ‘harass’ the voters. They do this anyway,” she was heard saying at about 16:00 minutes into the press conference.
Later, at the 45-minute mark, Mamata Banerjee claimed, “Previously, we used to salute the BSF jawans. But BJP has turned BSF, CRPF ‘political’…The Central government is using them for their political work. They might harass TMC workers so that they cannot go out for election campaigning and do their work.”
“So we will not allow this. We have earlier announced that BSF cannot operate beyond 15 km area from the international border. And West Bengal police will look into it,” she said.
