Kolkata: Amidst tussle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) over the invitation for the inauguration of metro station in Kolkata, Union Minister for Women and Child Welfare Smriti Irani on Monday inaugurated Sealdah Metro station virtually from Howrah Maidan metro station.
Inaugurating the metro station, Irani said that Sealdah railway station is the ‘busiest’ railway station in Asia and also that with this metro station at least 35,000 passengers would be ‘helped’ daily.
“This project of 1250 crore rupees will help at least 35000 passengers daily. Now people from Sealdah can directly commute till Salt Lake Sector five, a journey of 2.33 kilometers in minutes. I thank the Indian and Metro Railways for making the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a success. It is a part of the Make in India project,” mentioned Irani.
The Union Minister also spoke about the different works done by the Prime Minister for Bengal and also mentioned that the people of Bengal ‘thanked’ the Prime Minister for the ‘developmental’ works including free ration and tap water.
Meanwhile, the TMC MPs and MLAs ‘boycotted’ the inauguration of the metro station as according to them, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was ‘insulted’.
TMC MP Sudip Bandhopadhyay (who was invited to the programme), said that the way Mamata Banerjee was invited at the programme was an ‘insult’ to her for which they (TMC) will not participate in the programme.
“We decided to boycott the programme as the Indian Railways have insulted our chief minister. Everybody knows how much work Mamata Banerjee has done for the people as the Union Railway minister,” mentioned the Kolkata (North) TMC MP.
Eastern Railways CPRO Eklavya Chakraborty said that the names of the TMC MPs and MLAs were printed in the invitation card of the inaugural programme.
Union Minister Smriti Irani said that she was also ‘invited’ at the last moment. “The place of TMC MPs and MLAs were kept in the programme. I was invited at the last moment," she said.
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