The first cabinet meeting of Bengal’s first BJP-led government on Monday approved six decisions, signalling the Suvendu Adhikari administration’s intent to deliver on its core electoral promises.

“In our first cabinet meeting, we have taken six major decisions. Our government will work to give good governance irrespective of party and religion,” chief minister Suvendu said at Nabanna. “The double-engine government won’t be a government by the party, for the party and of the party. It will be a government for the people, by the people and of the people.”

Border fencing

The cabinet directed the land and land reforms departments to transfer the required land for fencing along the porous Bangladesh border within 45 days.

Bengal shares 2,216.7km of border with Bangladesh. Of this, 1,647.69km has already been fenced. Of the remaining 569.04km, 112.78km is non-feasible and 456.22km is feasible. Of the feasible stretch, only 77.9km was covered in land transfers last year, leaving 378.28km without land handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF).

Acquisition proceedings are underway for 229.3km, but nothing has been done for the remaining 148.9km. “Perhaps the chief minister was talking about fencing along the 229.3km stretch. The state can hand over land for that within a few weeks, but the 148.9km will be tougher,” said a state government official who requested anonymity.

Suvendu accused the previous Trinamool Congress government of deliberately stalling land transfers to enable illegal crossings. “The way the demography is changing, it is important to protect the borders,” he said.

Ayushman Bharat

The cabinet approved Bengal’s implementation of Ayushman Bharat, the centrally funded health insurance scheme that the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government had refused to adopt. The chief secretary, health secretary and the chief minister’s adviser have been tasked with completing the agreement with the Union health ministry at the earliest.

Suvendu said existing welfare schemes, including the Trinamool-era Swasthya Sathi, would continue — but with verified beneficiary lists. “The benefits would not be given to non-existent beneficiaries,” he said.

Census drive

The cabinet cleared the immediate launch of census work in Bengal. Suvendu said that the Union home ministry had written to the state government on June 16, 2025, urging it to begin preparatory work, but the previous administration, he alleged, took no action. Suvendu alleged the inaction was aimed at protecting illegal immigrants.

Job age boost

The cabinet approved a five-year relaxation in the upper age limit for recruitment examinations across government and government-aided institutions. The age cap for general category candidates will rise from 40 to 45 years; for reserved category candidates, from 45 to 50 years.

The BJP had cited the Trinamool government’s failure to conduct recruitment examinations since 2016 as a key campaign issue. “Several youths suffered and will not be able to take exams for government jobs after crossing the existing age limit,” Suvendu said.

Cooking gas

The cabinet directed authorities to forward to the Centre 15 lakh pending applications under the Prime Minister’s Ujjwala Yojana, a scheme that provides cooking gas cylinders at a subsidised rate. Suvendu said the previous government had withheld the applications, depriving a large number of women of the benefit.

Central training

The cabinet also approved restoring access for IAS, IPS, WBCS and WBPS officers to training programmes conducted by the Central government — a facility Suvendu said the Trinamool administration had blocked.

Relief for victims

The cabinet approved social welfare benefits for the families of 321 BJP workers it says were killed in political violence over the past several years.

Next meet

Suvendu said a second cabinet meeting — scheduled for next Monday — would take up outstanding DA arrears for state employees, the formation of a Seventh Pay Commission, women’s safety commissions, including a probe into the RG Kar murder case, and a commission on institutional corruption. “These were also our commitments. But we need to prepare some papers before we take a call on these,” the chief minister said.