The Army on Friday released four letters that it had written to different authorities of the West Bengal government informing them of the exercise on Wednesday and requesting their cooperation. This comes at a time when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress Party alleged that the state was not informed about the deployment and even raised the issue in Parliament.
The letters were signed and received by the authorities concerned, reported The Times of India. “This is being done in coordination with local police authorities. The exercise was earlier planned for November 27 and 28. The dates were changed to November 30 to December 2 on a specific request by Kolkata Police owing to Bharat Bandh called on November 28,” Army Major General Sunil Yadav told PTI. He added that they had carried a joint recce with two inspectors of the Kolkata Police at toll plaza on November 27.
The letters undermine the claim made by Banerjee and her party that the Centre was attempting a “military coup”. The chief minister had said that the Army troops have been deployed in all districts, except South 24 Parganas, with the aim to disrupt governance. At least six vehicles marked “Military Police” were spotted at the toll plaza on Vidyasagar Setu, a bridge that connects Kolkata to Howrah on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Army Major General Sunil Yadav said the exercise involved gathering data on the availability of load carriers at all major entry points in the north-eastern states including West Bengal. At least five to six unarmed Army personnel were posted across 80 such points in the entire region, Yadav said, adding that similar operations had already been carried out in other states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
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