Senior Congress leader and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday hit out at Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying, Army's job is to train for war and not to be used for civilian works.

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The Congress leader lashed out at Defence Minister after she visited Elphinstone Road station along with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal where it was announced that Army will help build foot overbridge at three stations including Elphinstone.

"The @adgpi job is to train for war, not to be used for civilian works @nsitharaman ji. Don’t divert defence resources to civilian jobs," Amarinder Singh said.

"You’re doing what General Kaul did with the 4th Div before 1962 war with China. It will set a very bad precedent. Please avoid," he said in another tweet.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also criticised the move.

"The army was to be a measure of last resort to be called upon in extreme emergency. Now it seems like it’s the 1st number on the speed dial," he said.

Nirmala Sitharaman said that a call was taken to cooperate seeing the urgency of the matter as Army has its role at the borders.

"Probably first time Army has been asked to come in to build what could otherwise be called civil work. But Elphinstone tragedy was so big, a call was taken to cooperate seeing the urgency of the matter," she said.

"I have been informed that the work on these bridges will be completed by January 31," Fadnavis said.

23 people were killed in a stampede on the Elphinstone Road station foot overbridge (FOB) last month.