Letter sent Dec. 22 by speed post: MHA
A day after West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee replied to home minister P. Chidambaram’s letter objecting to the latter’s reference to “Harmad Vahini” as “armed cadres” allegedly propped up by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the home ministry clarified that the contentious letter was sent through speed post on December 22.
Mr Bhattacharjee has objected to the contents of the Union home minister’s letter being leaked to the media before it reached him.
The home ministry on Wednesday clarified that there had been a delay on the part of the postal department in West Bengal.
The postal department, on its part, has taken responsibility for the delay in Mr Chidambaram’s letter reaching Mr Bhattacharjee which created some commotion and apologised for the incident.
A home ministry spokesman said India Post general manager post Alok Sharma wrote to the home ministry on Monday and apologised for the delay in delivery of the “article”.
In a written statement, the spokesman said the minister’s letter to the chief minister on the law and order situation in West Bengal was sent by Speed Post on December 22, 2010.
“It reached Kolkata general post office on December 24 at 6 am. The letter should, therefore, have been delivered on the same day which was a working day,” the spokesman said.
Mr Bhattacharjee and his CPI(M) had said it was regrettable that the contents of the letter were “leaked” to the media even before the recipient had received the communication, apparently unware that a postal problem led to the delay in it reaching the chief minister.
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