Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are likely to share stage twice during his two-day visit to Kolkata starting today. The PM will visit Bengal on Saturday (January 11) and will attend a series of inaugurations and celebrations. According to sources, Mamata, who has also been invited for two programs, may attend both; however, there has been no word from Trinamool Congress on the same
Mamata will call on the Prime Minister at Raj Bhavan where PM Modi will be staying overnight.
Huge security has been put in place in view of protests threatened by numerous outfits and groups against PM Modi’s arrival in the state. On Friday, apparently over security concerns, the authorities advance the arrival of PM Modi to the airport here by an hour on Saturday in order to enable him to take a helicopter ride to the city proper.
Modi was earlier scheduled to arrive at 5 pm and go straight to the Old Currency Building in central Kolkata for an official programme. But as per the changed schedule, he will now arrive by an Indian Air Force flight at 4 pm, and then he would be flown in a helicopter to the city`s Race Course. With the early onset of an evening in the ongoing winter season, it wouldn`t have been possible for the helicopter to land in Race Course had the prime minister arrived at 5 pm.
Stringent security is being put in place for the Prime Minister’s tour, amid security forces’ apprehensions that a couple of organisations could try to organise large-scale protests including black flag demonstrations at the NSCBI Airport and on the streets. Also, it has now been decided that the Prime Minister would go to Belur Math – global headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission – on a launch over the river Ganga.
However, there could be last-minute changes in the Prime Minister’s schedule in view of intensifying protests in the city and the rest of Bengal on the issue of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
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