NEW DELHI, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Indian army Friday dispelled speculations of a "military coup" raised by chief minister of the eastern state of West Bengal, saying it was conducting a routine exercise with full knowledge and coordination with state police.
"Army formations in eastern command at local levels are carrying out routine annual data collection exercise on availability of load carriers at major entry points," a statement issued by army said.
"The ongoing exercise involves collection of vehicular data at 18 places in Assam, 13 in Arunanchal Pradesh, 19 in West Bengal, 6 in Manipur, 5 each in Nagaland and Meghalaya and one in Tripura and Mizoram."
On Thursday West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stayed put at her office, raising fears of a "military coup."
"I will be staying at my Secretariat to guard our democracy," Banerjee wrote on twitter.
Banerjee's party - Trinamool Congress (TMC) raised the issue in the parliament. Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the routine exercise was being conducted throughout the country to get data about the load carriers to be made available to the army during contingency situations.
Banerjee spent over 24 hours inside her office amid fears, saying her government was not informed about the exercise.
She also accused Indian army's eastern command of propagating wrong information.
"Absolutely wrong and misleading facts by eastern command. We have great respect for you, but please please don't mislead the people," Banerjee wrote.
The West Bengal chief minister is on the forefront to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetization move of withdrawing currency notes of 500 and 1,000 Indian rupees from India's financial system.
