Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari convened his first cabinet meeting on Monday and disclosed that his government has cleared the transfer of state land to the Border Security Force (BSF) for the construction of a border fence along the Bangladesh frontier and has given immediate go‑ahead for the Census exercise in the state, PTI reported.
The meeting, attended by the five ministers inducted so far, also decided to align Bengal with several central government initiatives, including the Ayushman Bharat health coverage scheme. Under Ayushman Bharat, poor and vulnerable families are entitled to cashless hospitalisation coverage of up to ₹5,00,000 per family per year for secondary and tertiary healthcare services.
“In the backdrop of steadily changing demography in Bengal’s bordering districts, our cabinet has approved the beginning of the process of handing over necessary land to the BSF for setting up border fences. The Chief Secretary and the secretary of the state’s land and land revenue department have been asked to complete the process of land transfer within the next 45 days,” Adhikari told reporters while summing up the day’s decisions.
Adhikari alleged that the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee‑led Trinamool Congress regime had disregarded a circular dated June 16, 2025, issued by the Office of the Registrar General of India under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, which had notified the forthcoming Census exercise in the state.
“The TMC government betrayed the Constitution and the people and deliberately kept the Census exercise on hold in Bengal so that women’s reservation could be stopped. The cabinet has granted immediate sanction for the circular to take effect in the state,” he said.
The chief minister further alleged that the new criminal law framework, the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, which replaced the erstwhile Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, was never officially enforced by the TMC government in the state and that his first cabinet meeting has now accorded formal sanction for the new law to come into force in West Bengal.
