Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has not been invited to the foundation laying ceremony of a Metro Rail project tomorrow, while invitation
for the transport minister reached the state secretariat after he had left.
"I received no invitation," the chief minister said when asked if he had been invited by the Railways for the programme at Joka in adjoining South 24 Parganas district for the
Joka-BBD Bagh Metro Railway project, whose foundation will be laid by President Pratibha Patil.
Bhattacharjee said he also did not have any information about any of his cabinet colleagues being invited to the programme. Transport minister Ranjit Kundu, who earlier said he had not been invited, stated that a messenger had delivered a letter to his office after he had left for the day.
"The invitation letter was delivered at the eleventh hour and there is no question of attending the programme considering the indecent manner in which the invitation has
been accorded. It involves the prestige of the state government," Kundu said.
Secretariat sources said that the invitation letters to the chief secretary and home secretary were delivered "at the last moment." The President will lay the foundation of the Metro Railway project in the presence of Governor M K Narayanan, Railway
Minister Mamata Banerjee, Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and six union ministers of state.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 23:36