CM welcomes decision to allow paramilitary forces to travel by air in Kashmir

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday welcomed the move allowing paramilitary personnel deployed in Kashmir to take commercial flights to either join duty or go on leave but said it came when the current government had reached its "expiry date".

Without naming the BJP government, she accused it of ignoring intelligence inputs of the Home Ministry.

"It's better late than never. There was an intelligence input and the Home Ministry asked for permission for air lifting. That time they (Centre) did not allow... they did not care... If the doctor comes after the death then it will not help," Banerjee told reporters.

"When the expiry date is over and people have been killed and now you are taking decision," she claimed.

Banerjee accused the Centre of "total failure" in containing the mishap though there was an intelligence input and alleged it was "doing politics".

"They are a total failure. They are misusing the situation. When our jawans are getting killed, we are doing politics," she said.

Personnel of the paramilitary forces deployed in the Kashmir Valley for counter-terror operations have been entitled by the government on Thursday to take commercial flights to either join duty or go on leave, in the wake of the killing of 40 jawans in a deadly attack on their convoy in Pulwama. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an order saying it "has approved the entitlement of air travel on Delhi-Srinagar, Srinagar-Delhi, Jammu-Srinagar and Srinagar-Jammu sectors to all the personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs)".

This includes, the order said, their journey for joining duty, transfer, tour or going on leave. Till now, officers in the rank of Inspectors and above were given this air travel facility. As many as 65,000 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel are deployed in the state as part of 65 battalions apart from units of the Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal and the National Security Guard present in the Kashmir valley for rendering a variety of roles in the internal security grid.