Centre considering sealing of India-Bangladesh border: Rajnath Singh

KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said the Centre would consider sealing the India-Bangladesh border to stop the menace of fake currency and cattle smuggling.

"We will consider sealing the India-Bangladesh border so that the problem of fake currency and cow smuggling can be stopped," Singh said at a poll rally here today.

Singh also raised the issue of infiltration of Bangladeshis into India through the border with the state.

"Till date we have not taken up any step in connection with the Bangladeshi infiltrations. But we want that people of Bangladesh stay in Bangladesh and Indians stay in India. Bangladesh is our neighbour and we have very good friendly relations with them and we must maintain that relation.

"But it must be ensured that the people of Bangladesh does not become a liability for us (India) and similarly India must not be the same on them... Both the countries be cautious on this matter," Singh said.

The Centre has already decided to "regularise" those Bangladeshis who entered India till December 2014, the Union Home minister said hitting out at the Trinamool Congress government for failing to stop infiltration.

After the 34-year long 'misrule' of the Left Front, Singh said, West Bengal has slipped into a darker phase during the past five years of TMC regime.

Wondering whether West Bengal has truly witnessed "a change" that was promised by the TMC before the party came to power, he said the "situation is very bad in the state".