Kapil Moreshwar Patil, Union minister of state for the panchayati raj department, on Thursday held a series of interactions on the effectiveness of various central schemes with villagers of Malda district at two BSF camps amid questions on whether the venues were proper for such sessions.

Patil, who reached Malda on Tuesday, had announced that he would visit rural areas of the district to know whether villagers were receiving benefits of central schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and 100-day work.

On Wednesday, he went to Bhutni, the largest island on Ganga located in Manikchak block of the district. During his visit, he had to face protests as villagers gathered at two different locations shouted slogans and wielded black flags.

They were protesting the Centre’s alleged refusal to address the perennial problem of erosion caused by the Ganga and also the halt in the disbursement of funds under the rural jobs scheme.

On Thursday, the minister, along with some local MLAs, took a different approach to interact with the villagers and held the sessions at two separate BSF camps.

He reached an outpost of the BSF near the Indo-Bangla border at Keshtopur in Englishbazar block. Around 200 residents of neighbouring villages were present there.

Patil initially spoke with the BSF personnel and then started interacting with the villagers. Many of them told the minister that their names have not been included in the list of beneficiaries of PMAY.

Some of them also handed over written petitions and copies of PMAY application forms to him.

From there, he went to another border outpost of the BSF at Golapganj in Kaliachak where he attended a similar interactive session.

The meetings prompted the Trinamul to ask questions on whether involving the BSF wasn’t a breach of the federal structure of the country.

“The Union minister of state took the help of BSF to interact with villagers about central schemes. So far as the implementation of these schemes is concerned, the BSF has no business in it. How can he use a central force to assemble people so that he can interact with them while avoiding the district administration and the state police? It is completely against the federal structure,” said Subhamay Bose, the spokesperson of Malda district Trinamul.

Time and again, Trinamul leaders have alleged that central ministers and even some BJP leaders have taken the help of BSF which guards the India-Bangladesh border to intimidate border villagers ahead of the elections.

Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury, a state secretary of Trinamul reiterated it today. He mentioned that the villagers were taken to the BSF camps to pressurize them.

“It was done in a planned manner so that the villagers refrain from protests on issues like erosion and on the delay in releasing funds of 100-days work scheme. He cannot use the central paramilitary force during his visit which we find purely political,” said Choudhury.

Patil, however, came up with a different clarification and said he attended the social contact programmes which are organized by BSF to build relations with bordering villagers.

“BSF often holds such programmes and they had such an event today. My tour programme was known toall. So when villagers learnt about my presence at the BSF camps, they voluntarily came to meet me and shared their grievances,” he said.