Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair a high-level review meeting on July 18 with senior officials of the bordering districts of North Bengal during his visit to Siliguri.
According to official sources, the meeting will be held at Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat of the West Bengal government in Siliguri, and will focus primarily on border security, infiltration, exfiltration, cross-border crimes, smuggling and the progress of border fencing.
District Magistrates, Superintendents of Police and other senior civil and police officials from the border districts, including Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Darjeeling, are expected to attend the meeting.
Senior officers of the Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and other security agencies will also participate.
Although Darjeeling district shares international borders with both Bangladesh and Nepal, sources said the meeting will mainly concentrate on issues relating to the Indo-Bangladesh border.
As part of the security preparations, an advance security liaison meeting was held at Bagdogra on Wednesday. Officials of the Special Protection Group (SPG), along with senior state government officers, reviewed the arrangements for the Home Minister’s visit.
Darjeeling District Magistrate Harisankar Panicker, officials of the state Directorate of Security and representatives of other line departments attended the meeting.
Sources said Shah is expected to arrive at Bagdogra on the evening of July 17 and stay overnight at the BSF North Bengal Frontier headquarters at Kadamtala.
On the morning of July 18, he is scheduled to visit Rajganj in Jalpaiguri district, where he will lay the foundation stone for a development project and participate in a tree plantation programme before proceeding to Uttarkanya for the review meeting.
Officials said the meeting is expected to discuss the status of border fencing, particularly in vulnerable stretches where land acquisition had remained pending for several years.
Following the change in the state administration, the West Bengal government has handed over land required for border fencing in several districts, including Malda, Cooch Behar, Dakshin Dinajpur, Uttar Dinajpur, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri.
Official figures show that in Malda, 176.78 acres have been handed over for the construction of 20.15 km of border fencing. In Cooch Behar, one of the most sensitive border districts and home to the Tin Bigha Corridor, 135.3 acres have been made available for 39.39 km of fencing.
Land has also been handed over in the remaining border districts to facilitate the construction of fencing in vulnerable stretches.