Protest cloud over PM Modi’s visit

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is likely to visit Kolkata over the weekend, may run into protests with several social and political outfits planning agitations. During his visit, the PM is scheduled to kick start the sesquicentenary celebrations of Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT).
‘No NRC Movement’, an organisation that had called the largest non-political anti-NRC rally in Kolkata, has given a call to boycott Modi’s visit.It has also given a call to block the road leading to the airport. “We will also stage a protest at Raj Bhavan gates and block the roads. We are getting support from people across the state,” said Kamal Sur, convener of ‘No NRC Movement’. Students from JNU, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi University and Hyderabad University may also attend the two-day agitation programmes in the city.

Socio-cultural organisations like ‘Sahaman’ is planning to block the road at Kaikhali, said Suman Sengupta, spokesperson of the organisation.
Sensing that there could be widescale protests around the time of his visit, an advanced Special Protection Group (SPG) team reached Kolkata on Tuesday itself and held several rounds of meetings with senior officers like special commissioner Jawed Shamim. Though an initial deployment around all the routes that Modi may take has been finalized, the SPG is likely to visit each venue to carry out the recce themselves. The police said a three-layer security would be in place.
Modi is scheduled to reach the airport at 5pm and head straight to the Old Currency Building in Dalhousie. Later at 7pm, he will inaugurate a unique light-and-sound show on Howrah bridge to mark the start of KoPT’s 150th year celebrations. He will then leave for Belur Math and return to Raj Bhavan after 9pm.
On Sunday around 11am, the PM is scheduled to be present at a KoPT programme at Netaji Indoor Stadium.