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Central paramilitary forces to assist Bengal police during Hanuman Jayanti: MHA
The home ministry has directed all states and union territories to ensure peaceful Hanuman Jayanti celebrations on Thursday.
The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed in West Bengal to assist the state police in maintaining law and order during Hanuman Jayanti celebrations tomorrow, the ministry of home affairs said.
This comes after the Calcutta high court asked the state government what steps it had been taking to ensure peace during the celebrations tomorrow. It directed the state government to requisite central forces to assist the police.
“Considering the largeness of the issue and in order to avoid any breach of peace, the state government should requisition the assistance of paramilitary forces from the central government. The assistance of the paramilitary forces will definitely help the state police,” the bench stated.
Following the high court order, the Bengal government has decided to deploy paramilitary forces in Howrah, Hooghly and Kolkata during Hanuman Jayanti celebrations.
"There will be an ample number of state police forces deployed at sensitive areas in the state and also at those places where violence was witnessed recently, Apart from that, we have decided to deploy three companies of paramilitary forces in Kolkata, Hooghly and Barrackpore," a senior official told PTI.
Bengal witnessed violent clashes in Shibpur town of Howrah and Rishra in Hooghlyn during Ram Navami celebrations last week. The home ministry had sought a report from the Mamata Banerjee government over the violent clashes in the two districts.
Earlier in the day, the home ministry it directed all states and union territories to ensure peaceful observance of Hanuman Jayanti. “The MHA has issued an advisory to all states in preparation for Hanuman Jayanti. The governments are encouraged to ensure the maintenance of law and order, peaceful observance of the festival, and monitoring of any factors that could disturb communal harmony in society", the home ministry tweeted.
