Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday inaugurated a massive newly constructed passenger terminal and cargo gate at the Indo-Bangla border point at Petrapole in North 24 Parganas said that peace will return to Bengal only when trans-border infiltration is stopped and that can only be ensured with the fall of the Trinamool Congress Government.
Addressing a gathering at Petrapole in North 24 Parganas where he Shah said “in establishing peace in the region, land ports play an important role… Illegal movement of people across the border disturbs peace … and peace in Bengal can only be restored when there is no infiltration which again can be ensured only if the BJP come to power in 2026 throwing away the TMC from power,” he said.
The new facility at the border is likely to end the miseries of the passengers crossing to and from India. Besides being the eighth largest international immigration port of India that handles more than 23.5 lakh passengers annually between India and Bangladesh the Petrapole crossing is the largest land port in South Asia.
While Petrapole is in India, Benapole is situated on the corresponding side in Bangladesh. Apart from handling passenger traffic a large portion of which accounts for medical tourism nearly 70 per cent of land-based trade (by value) between the two countries take place through this point which is controlled by the Land Ports Authority of India, which functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Shah alleged during a subsequent meeting in Kolkata that the TMC Government in Bengal was the biggest facilitators of the infiltrators. “I have come to tell the youth of Bengal that State-sponsored infiltration in Bengal has to be stopped and for that to happen then the only way is to form BJP Government in 2026,” the Home Minister said
Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari too attacked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for “perpetrating a mafia raj and allowing infiltration in Bengal.” Vowing that the BJP would “never allow Bengal to become a second Bangladesh,” he said in 2026 Assembly elections his party would do whatever that was required to be done to oust the TMC from power.
