Meeting with Border Security Forces

Statesman News Service

MALDA, July 27: The Malda district magistrate, Mr Chittaranjan Das, would convene a meeting with the BSF tomorrow for better coordination and to check misunderstanding between the villagers and border guards. Authorities said the centre of discussion would be BSF’s highhandedness at Moslempur in English Bazaar where an innocent man was shot dead a few days ago. The administration has sent a report of this incident to the government and the chief minister is looking into the matter of border problems in nine districts of the state. Local MLAs have been asked to attend the meeting and express their views on the issue of misunderstanding between local residents and border guards and ways to check border crime. The administration has decided to continue promulgation of Sec 144 Cr PC along the border from 6 pm to 6 am every day in order to check smuggling. The administration is having a tough time receiving complaints from the BSF and the local people under the leadership of the political parties. Political parties are determined to uphold the interest of the farmers who face problems daily in cultivating their lands. Sources said that the administration would also discuss about the construction of a fence in the border.Presently, the BSF is facing problems of cattle smuggling and infiltration threat in some places in the wake of Mumbai blasts. Political leaders alleged that the BSF are forcefully terming local cattle as smuggled ones.