StatesWest Bengal
Suvendu Adhikari to spend first Diwali as Bengal CM with BSF jawans on the border
The Chief Minister is due at a border outpost in North 24 Parganas on Sunday morning, then heads to Nandigram for the rest of the festival.
Key points
- West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari will celebrate Diwali with BSF personnel at a border outpost in North 24 Parganas on Sunday.
- He said on Saturday night he will visit the Hingalganj BSF post, with DGP Siddh Nath Gupta, before leaving for Nandigram.
- Adhikari says the government is working for better Centre-state coordination on border security.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari will spend his first Diwali in office with Border Security Force personnel on Sunday, at a border outpost on the India-Bangladesh frontier in North 24 Parganas district.
Speaking on Saturday night, he said he would visit the BSF post at Hingalganj in North 24 Parganas on Sunday. An earlier schedule had named the Hakimpur camp in Swarupnagar block around 11 am. He is to spend time with the jawans and exchange Diwali greetings. He will be accompanied by Director General of Police Siddh Nath Gupta. After a brief halt in Kolkata, he is to leave for Nandigram, the constituency he represented before resigning the seat, to spend the rest of the festival with the public. He had won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur and kept Bhabanipur.
The visit follows the practice begun by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has marked Diwali with troops since his years as Gujarat Chief Minister.
What Adhikari has said
Adhikari spoke about the visit on Saturday on the sidelines of an event at Kolkata Police headquarters at Lalbazar. He said it was meant to show solidarity with security personnel who spend the festival away from their families.
He said the government was “making every effort to foster a positive environment and build strong bonds.” On the working of the Centre and the state, he said: “You will see in the coming days how the Centre and the state are working together through better coordination.”
Border security and the state
Adhikari said several meetings in Delhi had been aimed at strengthening ties between the BSF and the state police, and stressed the need for better coordination between the Centre and the state on border security.