President Mukherjee to visit Bengal next week

President Pranab Mukherjee will pay his first visit to his home state West Bengal after taking over the nation’s top post Sep 14-16 during which he will be accorded a civic reception by the Mamata Banerjee government, officials said.

Mukherjee is scheduled to arrive in the city Sep 14 afternoon and preparations are already on to give him a rousing welcome at the NSC Bose International Airport, the sources said.

He will then proceed to the Netaji Indoor stadium where the state government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation would fete him, said city Mayor Sovan Chatterjee.

After spending the night in the Prince of Wales suite in Raj Bhavan where protocol demands the head of state to stay while in Kolkata, Mukherjee will fly off to Kharagpur to address the 58th convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology.

In the evening, the president will fly back to the city where he will be felicitated by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

On Sep 16, Mukherjee is tentatively scheduled to inaugurate a hospital at Fuleshwar in Howrah district, but there was no official confirmation.

However, due to his packed schedule, the president has no plans to visit his ancestral house at Mirati village in Birbhum district.

It was also unlikely that Mukherjee would visit his house in south Kolkata’s Dhakuria due to security issues.