West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday said that Bangladeshi infiltrators detained in the state will be directly handed over to the Border Security Forces for deportation, instead of being produced before courts, in line with the new rule that came into force in the state a day ago.
Speaking to reporters after an administrative review meeting at the Howrah District Magistrate’s office, Adhikari said instructions have already been issued to the Police Commissioner and Railway Protection Force in this regard.
“Since yesterday, the new rule has come into effect, according to which the infiltrators will not be sent to the courts but will be handed over to the Border Guard posts on the Bangladesh border,” he added.
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Adhikari on Wednesday announced the implementation of a mechanism under which infiltrators detained by the state police would be handed over directly to the Border Security Forces for deportation, unveiling what he described as part of a broader framework to “detect, delete and deport.”
Although the Prime Minister did not mention the law under which the newly elected BJP government in Bengal changed the policy to prosecute infiltrators, Adhikari appeared to be referring to the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which was passed by Parliament in April last year.
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The Act aims to provide a modern, technology-based system for immigration, registration, surveillance, detention and deportation in India.
“The Commissioner of Police and RPF have received clear instructions that if illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, who are not eligible to apply for citizenship under the Citizenship Act, are detained at Howrah station, they should not be sent to court.
“The persons concerned should be fed properly and then transferred directly to the personnel of the Border Security Forces at the Petrapole border in Bongaon or the border post at Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district,” he said.
Adhikari also said that a weekly report on the number of such detainees should be submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office through the Directorate General of Police.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister reviewed the civic infrastructure and development-related issues related to Howrah city on the western bank of the Hooghly River bordering Kolkata.
Adhikari said he was optimistic about completing the process of delimitation of civic body wards in Howrah and neighboring Bali by December this year, where municipal elections have been pending for a long time, and starting the process of forming elected councils in both the urban local bodies.
“As part of the long-term planning for the development of the Howrah Municipal District, we have decided to complete the demarcation process by the end of this year and then hand over the responsibility of the city to its elected civic council,” the Prime Minister said.
In the short term spanning over the next three months, Adhikari said the administration will focus on the priority areas of providing clean and filtered drinking water, cleaning garbage, repairing the sewerage system, and upgrading other civic amenities such as parks, healthcare facilities and educational institutions.
He said that a coordination committee under the district magistrate has been formed with railway and civic body officials as members to plan and implement their responsibilities to improve civic infrastructure.
He added that the committee’s work will be monitored by Municipal Affairs Secretary Khalil Ahmed.
“We have sought a fact-finding report on the illegal construction in Howrah and will initiate a probe into the alleged corruption involving a section of construction companies. The administration will construct replacement water bodies for the ones that have been filled,” Adhikari said.
The Prime Minister referred to the state-appointed committee against institutional corruption, which is headed by retired Calcutta High Court judge Justice Biswajit Basu, and which includes senior IPS officer K Jayaraman as its member. The commission is tasked with investigating allegations of graft, including “money-off” scams, and is scheduled to officially begin its work on June 1.
“The committee will work quickly. It will collect evidence and hold public hearings on the basis of which FIRs will be lodged, arrests will be made, and subsequent punishments will follow,” he said, adding that public funds looted from the guilty would be recovered.
Adhikari said he had instructed the Howrah city police to file fresh first information reports and take appropriate action in connection with incidents of political violence and other law and order issues, especially crimes against women.
The Prime Minister was accorded a guard of honor at the Howrah district magistrate’s office before chairing the administrative meeting.
