By IANS,
Kolkata: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday announced that a proposed Metro railway station in New Barrackpore municipality of West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district will be named after Nobel laureate Mother Teresa.
“We will name the proposed Metro station at New Barrackpore after Mother Teresa. We will also name the proposed Metro stations at Hridaypur and Jessore Road after writer Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay and poet Jibanananda Das.
“The proposed Metro station near the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport will be called Jai Hind,” Banerjee said while laying the foundation stone of the Metro railway track from Dum Dum-Barasat via the NSCBI airport.
Mother Teresa came to India in 1929, set up the Kolkata-headquartered Missionaries of Charity 21 years later, and died here Sep 5, 1997. She was buried at Mother House, the global headquarters of her congregation here.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and given India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. The Missionaries of Charity now comprises over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries.
Banerjee also took a dig at the state’s ruling Marxists for criticising the development projects ushered by the Railways.
“They (Communist Party of India-Marxist) work by driving people out of their homes. I don’t do that. Let there be a healthy competition on ushering in development and not violence. In the last one and half years, I have done so much that I can easily challenge them in terms of development.
“If you can perform then perform, if you can fight then fight. Otherwise move away,” she said, in an obvious reference to the Marxist-led Left Front government in the state.