Eventful day for Bengal over PM's twin-events in Alipurduar

Kolkata, May 29 (IANS) West Bengal is heading for a politically eventful day on Thursday over the twin events of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one administrative and the other political, at Alipurduar district in the Northern Sector of West Bengal.

This will be the Prime Minister’s first official visit to Alipurduar as well as West Bengal after the Lok Sabha elections last year, before which he came to the state a number of times to campaign on behalf of the BJP.

At the administrative programme, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for the City Gas Distribution (CGD) project in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts.

The project, worth over Rs 1,010 crore, aims to provide Piped Natural Gas (PNG) to more than 2.5 lakh households, over 100 commercial establishments and industries, besides providing Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by establishing around 19 CNG stations in line with the Minimum Work Program (MWP) targets stipulated by the Union Government.

The administrative event will be followed by the Prime Minister’s address at a political rally at Alipurduar, where he is expected to give a message on the success of ‘Operation Sindoor’, the strike through which the Indian armed forces successfully demolished several terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.

Political observers feel that Alipurduar was strategically chosen as the venue of the Prime Minister’s post ‘Operation Sindoor’ programmes because of the district’s geographical significance, with the Chicken Neck Sector being on one side of it and the Seven Sisters of the North-East on the other side.

“In a way, Alipurduar is the gateway to North-East India, and hence by location, the district is extremely significant. I think this is why the Prime Minister has chosen this district as the venue for his administrative and political programmes,” a city-based political observer said.

At the political rally, PM Modi is also expected to launch a scathing attack against the West Bengal government and the ruling Trinamool Congress, which was hinted at by the Prime Minister himself through a post on his X handle on Wednesday.

“I will be addressing a BJP West Bengal public meeting in Alipurduar tomorrow afternoon. Over the last decade, the various schemes of the NDA Government, have been greatly appreciated by the people of West Bengal. At the same time, they are tired of the corruption and poor administration of the TMC,” the Prime Minister’s message on Wednesday read.

Now it is to be seen how Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would react in case of any critical observation from the Prime Minister on the issue of corruption.

--IANS

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