Siliguri, March 23: The Bengal government has decided to bifurcate Malda's Kaliachak police station which report a large number of crimes related to counterfeit currency, narcotics, firearms and opium cultivation.
"At a state cabinet meeting at Nabanna yesterday, the nod was given to realign the jurisdiction of Kaliachak police station and create a new police station at Mothabari," said a source.
The cabinet also assented to the creation of a new police station in Birbhum, where the jurisdiction of Mayureswar police station will be changed and new Mallarpur police station will be formed.
The decision to form Mothabari police station has come at a time criminal activities of different kinds have become rampant in the two police station areas of Malda district, Kaliachak and Baishnabnagar.
Under the jurisdiction of the two police stations, incidents like smuggling of fake currencies, narcotics and firearms and illegal cultivation of opium have become regular, show the data with different security agencies.
According to the data available with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), at least four cases of narcotic seizure and five incidents of recovery of fake Indian currency have been reported in the two police stations during the past three months.
In a reply to a question by Trinamul MP Vivek Gupta, Kiren Rijiju, the Union minister of state for home, told the Rajya Sabha yesterday that post-demonetisation, fake notes with a face value of 14.56 lakh had been seized in Malda district, followed by the recovery of counterfeit notes of Rs 1 lakh in Murshidabad district.
"In such a situation, it is an apt decision by the state to create a new police station. As far as we know, Mothabari, located in Kaliachak block 2, will be upgraded to a police station. There are chances that under the new jurisdiction of Kaliachak police station, there will be Kaliachak block 1. Mothabari police station will have Kaliachak block 2 under it," said a police source.
The Kaliachak police station is spread over Kaliachak 1 and 2 blocks. In total, there are 23 panchayats in the two blocks where the total population was around 5.21 lakh as per the 2001 census. There are two outposts, Golapganj and Mothabari, under Kaliachak police station.
The Kaliachak block 3 is under Baishnabnagar police station.
"After 2001, the population has increased by 15 per cent to 20 per cent. The area is located close to the India-Bangladesh border and a considerable portion of the boundary is unfenced because of riverine areas and other problems. Over the years, there has been a rise in different border crimes in the villages located under Kaliachak and Baishnabnagar police stations," said a retired police officer who worked in Malda.
The rise in such crimes and anti-social activities had made even the National Investigating Agency open an office in Malda.
Along with security forces like the BSF, the NIA has been closely watching crimes like smuggling of fake currency and firearms.
