The state government has decided to shoot down the proposal by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee to name the five new Metro stations on the just-inaugurated Tollygunge-Garia stretch after eminent personalities from the state.

The Metro Railway authorities have written to Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti for getting the five names — Mahanayak Uttam Kumar, Netaji, Masterda Surya Sen, Geetanjali and Kabi Nazrul — registered.

“We will not allow this. We have protested against this at the right forums. But I will not reveal where I have registered my protest,” said State Transport Minister Ranjit Kundu.

Kundu was invited to the inaugural function for the Metro extension on Sunday last but chose not to go. However, the chief minister, who was not invited to the programme, had hit out at the Railway Minister for ignoring the state government at the programme. “The state government bore 33 per cent of the project cost,” CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said.

State government officials refer to a resolution taken by the Cabinet under the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, which banned the naming of railway stations after eminent people. “What Mamata has done is illegal. And for naming the stations, the concurrence of the concerned state government is necessary. But in this case it was not taken,” an official said.

He also spoke of how railway functions were turning into Trinamool Congress programmes. “Whenever there is railway programme, all the five Union ministers from the Trinamool are invited. Party flags are brought and slogans like Trinamool Congress Jindabad are raised. It is ridiculous,” the official added.

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