Mamata questions Rajnath's Bengal tour

Questioning the motive behind Home Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to the state, including to enclaves on the India-Bangladesh border, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday slammed the central government for not holding any "prior discussion" on the tour.

"Today Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Ji has visited Chhit-Mahal areas (border enclaves) in Cooch Behar, along with BJP MPs. Is it an official visit or a political visit?

"No prior discussion or consultation about the visit was made with us, though Chhit-Mahal and law and order fall within the jurisdiction of state government," she posted on Facebook and Twitter.

Rajnath Singh on a two-day visit to the state on Tuesday surveyed the India-Bangladesh border and visited border enclaves in Cooch Behar district.

Although scheduled earlier, his visit to the border comes a day after the National Investigation Agency in a charge sheet before a city court said the terrorists involved in the Burdwan blast had conspired with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh, to overthrow the government in Dhaka.

Besides holding talks with officers of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), the home minister said a letter to the Mamata Banerjee government has been sent for acquiring land for fencing parts of the border that remain unfenced.

The Trinamool Congress supremo, on a two-day visit to north Bengal, expressed her discontent with the reception of "only a fax message" informing her of the visit.

"It is customary to have prior discussion in such cases with the state government. Even though I am now in north Bengal, with a prior programme, I have only received a fax message of his tour programme. I think in our federal structure, we must respect each other's jurisdiction," she said.