Prime Minister Narendra Modi today is on his highly anticipated visit to West Bengal, where he inaugurated country's first underwater metro in Kolkata and will later address a public rally in Barasat area of North 24 Parganas district, also the place where trouble-torn Sandeshkhali is situated.
PM Modi inaugurated the country's first underwater Metro section between Howrah Maidan and Kolkata's Esplanade.
State BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the "tortured women" of Sandeshkhali, which has been rocked by protests over allegations of sexual abuse of women by TMC leaders, will be present at the rally venue. "It is still not known whether the victims of Sandeshkhali will meet the prime minister or not," he said.
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PM Modi In West Bengal | Key Updates
Country's First Underwater Metro
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country's first underwater Metro section between Howrah Maidan and Kolkata's Esplanade on Wednesday. PM Modi then also took a metro ride with students.
PM Modi was welcomed by a huge crowd at the Esplanade station in Kolkata.
PM Modi landed in Kolkata on Tuesday evening and headed straight to Raj Bhawan, where he will stay the night, a senior state BJP leader said.
The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade Metro section features the country's first tunnel under a major river, with the Howrah Metro Station being the deepest (33 meters below the surface), one of its kind in the country, as per information given in a DD report.
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The PM will also inaugurate the Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay and the Taratala-Majerhat Metro sections, besides other projects.
-PM Meets Sandeshkhali Victims
After launching the projects in Kolkata, PM Modi headed to Barasat of North 24 Parganas in the afternoon to address a public rally where he also met a group of women from trouble-torn Sandeshkhali.
Sandeshkhali, which has been hitting headlines over allegations of land-grab and sexual violence by several women on TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh, is also situated in North 24 Parganas.
Women Sandeshkhali, which has been rocked by protests over allegations of sexual abuse of women by TMC leaders, were present at the rally venue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack at the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) over the Sandeshkhali issue and said that the storm of Sandeshkhali will reach every part of the state.
Last week, PM Modi addressed two rallies in West Bengal, one each at Arambagh in Hooghly district and Krishnanagar in Nadia district. He slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government over "atrocities on women" in Sandeshkhali and said that the entire country is seething with anger over the issue, and called upon people to ensure her party's defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
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Addressing the women's rally on Wednesday in Barasat, PM Modi said whatever happened with women in Sandeshkhali "is matter of shame." PM Modi also said that the BJP government has arranged a Women Helpline for easy registration of complaints, however, the TMC-led government of Bengal is not letting that operate.
