New Delhi, December 30
The task of national service must never stop, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday moments after flagging off Vande Bharat train from Howrah to New Jalpaiguri and honouring his commitment to inaugurate multiple railway projects worth more than Rs 5,000 crore in West Bengal despite the demise of his mother Heeraba in the wee hours.
Reminding citizens of the faith the world was reposing in India, the PM, visibly distraught over his personal loss, said: “In ‘Amrit Kaal’, everyone has to work together to live up to the trust the world has reposed in India. Every citizen must invest his entire energy in the task of nation-building. The task of national service must not stop.”
Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee thanked the Prime Minister for his presence despite his mother’s demise. “Your mother is our mother,” she said as the PM joined the programme via videoconferencing moments after performing his mother’s last rites.
The PM took the occasion to announce that the Railways would witness unprecedented modernisation over the next eight years and would “acquire a new youthful modern avatar in line with a youthful nation”.
He spoke with pride of December 30, saying that it was on this day in 1943 that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose unfurled the Tricolour in Andaman’s Port Blair and declared Indian independence. The PM said Rs 5,000 crore worth of railway projects were underway in Bengal, 25 sewerage projects had been approved, 11 were complete with the main work, involving the restoration of Adi Ganga.
Sloganeering, Mamata refuses to sit on dais
Kolkata: Sloganeering at Howrah station on Friday snowballed into a major controversy as a visibly annoyed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to sit on the dais from where the Vande Bharat Express to New Jalpaiguri was flagged off. Banerjee seemed upset by the loud sloganeering of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by BJP workers present at the railway station. PTI