Protestors prevent Mamata Banerjee to flag off express train

Protesters today prevented railway minister Mamata Banerjee to flag off the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express from Rourkela station through video-conferencing.

Thousands of demonstrators rushed to the station and shouted slogans demanding an apology from railway minister Mamata Banerjee for not printing the invitation card of the function in Oriya.

Names of Congress MP Hemananda Biswal and local MLAs Sharada Nayak and Subrat Tarai, both from BJD, were also
missing from the invitation cards, which were printed in
Bengali, Hindi and English.

Banerjee failed to inaugurate through a remote control from Midnapore in West Bengal as protesters snapped the video connection.

The helpless DRM Ravindra Gupta, finding no other way, finally allowed the train to run. 

The much-awaited intercity express was virtually flagged off by protesters led by Ananda Mohanty, president of Rourkela unit of BJD and Rashmibala Mishra, chairperson of Rourkela Municipality.

The protesters also prevented Biswal and senior officials of the Chakradharpur railway division to the podium. 

The intercity express will run six days a week to the capital city from February 15.