Mamata govt failed to check cattle smuggling: Chidambaram-led Panel

Committee finds seized cattled up for auction bought back by smugglers, pushed to Bangladesh again

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs chaired by Congress leader P Chidambaram in its report on border security presented to the Rajya Sabha in April 2017 had noted that the West Bengal government wasn’t making enough efforts to check cattle smuggling to Bangladesh.

The committee’s report noted, "The Committee is distressed to note that despite several measures taken by the BSF, the problem of cattle smuggling persists along the international border with Bangladesh. The Committee is particularly anguished to note that the West Bengal State Government has failed to implement its own order dated September 1, 2003 that outlaws existence of any cattle haats within 8 km of border area. The Committee recommends that the State Government of West Bengal should take steps to cancel the licenses of all cattle haats that are illegally functioning within 8 km of border area and hold the officials responsible for illegally issuing/renewing licenses to these haats.”

The 32 members of the committee headed by Chidambaram included Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. It is not clear whether Derek O’Brien raised any objections to these observations by the committee.

The report also points out to a smuggler-official nexus in the border areas. The committee found out that the seized cattle being auctioned by Customs officials was being bought back by smugglers, who again pushed the animals across to Bangladesh. It recommended that in order to prevent this practice, the seized cattle should be transported to states that do not share a border with any country and that auctions should be conducted there. The other solution to check smuggling was to raise the minimum benchmark price of seized cattle to make it unaffordable for cattle smugglers. It also suggested cattle auctioneers be mandated to submit their PAN card and Aadhar number before participating in the auction process.

When the committee wanted to know the primary reasons for cattle smuggling, the home ministry attributed it to three factors. Firstly, the area was densely populated areas and had nearly 300 villages within 150 yards of the International Boundary. Secondly, a section of the local population was deeply entrenched in cattle smuggling. And thirdly the cattle seized by the BSF was finding its way back to smugglers. The home ministry stated that cattle smugglers and their agents from Haryana, Rajasthan, MP, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar & West Bengal and local carriers are the main perpetrators and some section of the border population also finds smuggling a source of livelihood.

The report noted, “The Committee agrees that mass movement of cattle occurs from all the states towards West Bengal and Assam and once they reach the border areas it becomes extremely difficult to stop their movement across the border. The Committee feels that Police forces of various States have failed to stop this mass movement of cattle to border states and West Bengal Police has failed to intercept or stop the movement of the cattle.”