PM Modi's one-day trip to Varanasi cancelled due to heavy rains

Varanasi: Yet again, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's one-day trip to his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi has been cancelled due to heavy rainfall. He was scheduled to address a public rally, inaugurate a power project and open a trauma centre at the Banaras Hindu University during his trip. However, it has been raining heavily in Varanasi since Thursday morning following which the rally has been called off.

Earlier, Modi's planned rally to Varanasi was cancelled on June 28 due to heavy rain, which had left the venue (DLW Grounds) waterlogged. Despite the PMO personally monitoring the situation in Varanasi on Thursday to successfully hold the rally, it has been cancelled.

Power Grid Corporation of India had been asked to erect a special waterproof pandal at the venue. Three special technicians had been called from New Delhi and a large number of labourers were working round the clock on it. Pandal flooring base had been prepared by first laying bricks and then covered with plywoods, and even water pumps had been installed to meet any contingencies.

Modi was to launch an Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), give a go-ahead to the four-laning of the Varanasi-Babatpur Road and lay the foundation stone of a Ring Road.

He also had to lay the foundation stones for two power sub-stations at Chowk and Kazzakpura respectively from the DLW Grounds and inaugurate the much-awaited Trauma Centre of the Banaras Hindu University.

After winning Lok Sabha elections from both Varanasi and Vadodara in 2014, Modi gave up the seat in his home state of Gujarat to retain this eastern UP Parliamentary constituency.

His decision to contest from here was seen as a political master-stroke which had helped the BJP put up its best-ever show in Lok Sabha polls, winning over 70 seats in UP and getting a majority on its own.

On his previous two visits to his Lok Sabha constituency - on November 7-8 and December 25 - Modi had gifted Varanasi a number of projects like trade facilitation centre for weavers, adopted a village "Jayapur" for development under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, and inaugurated an Inter-University Teachers' Training Centre at BHU. The Prime Minister also led from the front in cleaning of the fabled 'Assi Ghat'.