The newly formed West Bengal cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday, 11 May, cleared a series of landmark decisions at its very first meeting — beginning with an order to allocate land to the Border Security Force (BSF) within 45 days for barbed fencing along the currently unfenced international border with Bangladesh. The decisions signal a sharp policy break from the preceding Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.

BSF Land Allocation and Border Fencing

Chief Minister Adhikari confirmed that the commitment to hand over land to the BSF within 45 days was a core promise in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s pre-election Sankalp Patra (election manifesto) and had also been announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. "So in the first meeting of the new cabinet today, that decision had been cleared," Adhikari told media persons after the meeting. The move addresses a long-standing security concern along Bengal's porous border, which has been a flashpoint for infiltration and smuggling allegations for years.

Ayushman Bharat Finally Comes to West Bengal

The cabinet also cleared the implementation of Ayushman Bharat — the Centre's flagship health insurance scheme, formally known as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) — in West Bengal. The previous TMC government had declined to adopt the scheme, arguing that the state's own Swastha Sathi health insurance programme made the Central scheme redundant. West Bengal was one of the last major states to stay outside the Ayushman Bharat framework, meaning millions of residents were excluded from the scheme's ₹5 lakh annual coverage per family.

Joining Central Schemes Across Sectors

Beyond Ayushman Bharat, CM Adhikari announced that the cabinet has initiated the process of enrolling the state in several other Centrally-sponsored programmes that were not implemented under the previous administration. These include Pradhan Mantri Krishak Bima Yojana, PM Shree, Vishwakarma, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and Ujjwala Yojana. "The District Magistrates have been instructed to send all applications to the Central Ministry at the earliest," the Chief Minister said. He also assured that none of the welfare schemes introduced by the previous government would be discontinued, adding that benefits would, however, be restricted to eligible Indian citizens and that deceased persons would be removed from beneficiary rolls.

BNS and BNSS Now in Force; Job Age Limit Raised

In another significant move, CM Adhikari announced that West Bengal has been brought under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, replacing the colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) with effect from Monday. "The previous Acts were being implemented in a very illegal manner in the state for so long. From today, West Bengal has been linked entirely with the BNS and BNSS," he said. The cabinet also decided to raise the upper age limit for state government job applications by five years, citing Home Minister Shah's observation that no fresh state government recruitment had taken place in 15 years, leaving a large cohort of educated youth past the eligibility threshold.

What Comes Next

With multiple Central scheme enrolments now initiated and District Magistrates directed to move swiftly, the pace of implementation will be closely watched. The decisions collectively represent a realignment of West Bengal's governance with Central policy frameworks — a reversal that has been in the making since the BJP's election campaign centred heavily on the state's exclusion from national welfare programmes. How quickly benefits reach citizens on the ground will determine the political dividend the new government can claim.