NDTV, Kolkata :
A furious Mamata Banerjee left her Kolkata office after 30 hours on Friday evening amid a row over the presence of army at toll booths across West Bengal. “The centre is trying to bulldoze us, we will fight them legally,” Ms Banerjee said. The centre and the army have said soldiers are present at the toll booths as part of a routine vehicle counting exercise and have refuted the West Bengal Chief Minister’s allegation that her government was not informed.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in parliament this morning that he is “shocked and hurt” and that it is unfortunate that the Army is
being dragged into controversy because of what he called Mamata Banerjee’s “political frustration.”
The Army, the minister said, was conducting a routine exercise in Bengal and other states, one which it had conducted last year in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. “It is done in different states with the consent of officials,” Mr Parrikar said.
A united opposition backed Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress as it brought up the matter in both Houses of parliament. “We need the Army, but the army comes only after the permission of the state. They have come without the permission in West Bengal, this is an attack on the federal structure,” said Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The Army has released letters to show that it was in communication with the West Bengal police on the annual exercise to “gather statistical data about load carriers that could be made available to the Army in case of a contingency.”
A furious Mamata Banerjee left her Kolkata office after 30 hours on Friday evening amid a row over the presence of army at toll booths across West Bengal. “The centre is trying to bulldoze us, we will fight them legally,” Ms Banerjee said. The centre and the army have said soldiers are present at the toll booths as part of a routine vehicle counting exercise and have refuted the West Bengal Chief Minister’s allegation that her government was not informed.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in parliament this morning that he is “shocked and hurt” and that it is unfortunate that the Army is
being dragged into controversy because of what he called Mamata Banerjee’s “political frustration.”
The Army, the minister said, was conducting a routine exercise in Bengal and other states, one which it had conducted last year in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. “It is done in different states with the consent of officials,” Mr Parrikar said.
A united opposition backed Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress as it brought up the matter in both Houses of parliament. “We need the Army, but the army comes only after the permission of the state. They have come without the permission in West Bengal, this is an attack on the federal structure,” said Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The Army has released letters to show that it was in communication with the West Bengal police on the annual exercise to “gather statistical data about load carriers that could be made available to the Army in case of a contingency.”
