Kolkata: West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi on Saturday virtually disapproved of Mamata Banerjee’s remarks on the deployment of army at toll plazas, prompting a sharp retaliation from the Chief Minister who said his comments were unfortunate and that he was speaking in Centre’s voice.
After Banerjee took on the Army and the Centre over the past two days that triggered a spat, Tripathi said one should be careful while making allegations against a responsible organisation like the army.
“Every person should take care in making allegations against a responsible organisation like Army.
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“Don’t let down the Army. Don’t defame the Army”, Tripathi said when asked about the charge that Army personnel were collecting money from trucks.
Describing Tripathi’s statement as “unfortunate”, Banerjee said, “The Governor is speaking in the voice of the Central Government! He was not in the city for about 8 days”.
“Before making statements, all details should have been checked. It is very unfortunate,” she said in a statement.
The presence of Army personnel at toll plazas had triggered a row with Banerjee questioning if it was an “army coup”, drawing a stinging condemnation from the Centre which said the remark showed her “political frustration”.
Banerjee had claimed that Army personnel were taking money from vehicles which they were not supposed to do.
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The Army had rebutted her allegations that its personnel were deployed at toll plazas without informing the state government and were collecting money, saying the exercise was being carried out in coordination with Kolkata Police.