Overview
- Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived for a three-day West Bengal visit and will chair a high-level border-security review at Uttarkanya in Siliguri on July 18.
- The Siliguri Corridor, also called the Chicken’s Neck, is the central focus of the meeting and officials will assess progress on fencing, infiltration, smuggling and other cross-border crime.
- Recent state land handovers of over 1,000 acres, including 176.78 acres in Malda and 135.3 acres in Cooch Behar, have been cited as enabling the next phase of border fencing work.
- Shah will visit the Jhumgachhi/Jumagach border outpost to meet BSF personnel, attend a Prahari Sammelan and launch or lay foundations for BSF projects; district magistrates, police chiefs and senior central force officers are expected to attend.
- Officials and analysts point to reported Bangladesh–China projects and planned connectivity upgrades around the corridor as reasons for Delhi’s stepped-up security push, which could speed fencing, boost logistics and change local policing and border patrol patterns.