Cong cadres upset after PM's visit called off

Statesman News Service

KOTWALI, Dec. 7: The sudden cancellation of Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to Malda has disappointed a large section of Congress supporters including the Malda MP Mr. AH Khan Choudhury and his family members, this morning. Dr Singh was scheduled to visit the late A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury's residence to pay homage to the departed Congress stalwart.

It was officially announced that he would land at the Purnea airbase this morning by an aircraft from Kolkata and land in Malda in a helicopter at around 11 am. The Malda SP, Mr. Satyajit Bandyopadhayay said: “Due to poor weather conditions coupled with dense fog at Purnea the prime minister's scheduled trip to Malda has been cancelled.”. He denied that security considerations had anything to do with the sudden cancellation.

Family members of the late A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury had been waiting for Dr Singh's arrival and had made complete arrangements to welcome him to their residence. They were visibly shocked when the inspector general, SPG, Mr. J K Chakraborty informed security officials that the trip had been cancelled due to dense fog which had reduced visibility to a considerable extent. “The Prime Minister was sorry about the cancellation. He might come here later," said Mr. AN H Khan Choudhury, the Malda MP.

“We had made a lot of plans to interact with the PM here and 120 Congress leaders were also going to be present to urge him to contest from the North Malda parliamentary seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. I had spoken to him several times about the contest plan and he had never said no,” Malda MP said.

“Let me see. I will come to your house to convey my decision, he told me. Last evening too the special protection group members confirmed that he would be coming today “ the MP said.

It was learnt from the party sources that a hefty amount had been spent to decorate the house and make other preparations. More than Rs. 1 lakh was spent for the luncheon that the prime minister was scheduled to have with the family members of the late leader.

More than Rs. 10 lakhs had been spent for security arrangements including the construction of a helipad, removal of high and low tension electric wires causing power cuts in three villages.

The district magistrate, Mr. Sridhar Ghosh today issued an order to restore power supply to those villages, which had been literally in a state of black out to facilitate Dr Singh's trip to Malda.

A visibly disappointed Malda MP Mr. A H Khan Choudhury could not reconcile himself to the ‘fog factor’ for being the cause behind the cancellation of the Prime Minister's plan to pay homage to the late Congress stalwart.

He pointed out in the presence of senior leaders of Congress, including Sabhadhipati and English Bazaar MLA that the cancellation had inadvertently re-affirmed the district's demand for an air base here. “We need to revive our existing Malda airport to avoid such problems in future,” he said.