KOLKATA: A day after her plane hovered above the Kolkata airport with fuel allegedly for just ‘8 minutes’, for which she accused the Centre of trying to kill her, Army personnel were deployed right under
the nose of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s office at state secretariat Nabanna on Thursday evening, without her information.
Expressing her displeasure over the deployment of Army personnel at three toll plazas near Kolkata without informing the state, the Trinamool supremo termed the move as ‘general emergency’.
Army personnel were seen noting down numbers of freight carriers on Thursday at Palsit toll plaza in Burdwan district, Dankuni toll plaza in Hooghly district and Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza just a stone’s throw away from state secretariat Nabanna in Howrah district.
Terming the deployment as a sign of a general emergency, Mamata Banerjee in a presser at Nabanna on Thursday evening said: “We knew the country is undergoing economic emergency unleashed by
demonetisation, now the states are being hounded by the Centre for not falling in line. Today its Bengal, tomorrow it may be Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.”
“Even if Army is used to suppress communal tensions or riots, state is informed. Why was the state not informed in this instance,” she queried.
A letter will be sent to the Centre and President Pranab Mukherjee will be informed about the deployment of Army in the three toll plazas of Bengal.
Meanwhile, Army has termed the deployment as a routine exercise. “This is a routine exercise. The police and the District Magistrates were informed. This exercise was basically done to know the statistics of the number of load carriers available that may be of use to the Army in the times of emergency,” Army spokesperson S S Virdi said.