Protesters today prevented Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee from flagging 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 M.P. 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.
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Banerjee failed to inaugurate the event 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.
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The protesters also prevented Biswal and senior officials of the Chakradharpur railway division from the podium.
The intercity express will run six days a week to the capital city from February 15.