Gangtok, Oct. 15: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi arrived here today on a brief vacation and spent the day visiting the tourist spots in town.
However, sources in the government said Modi’s schedule suggested that he was on a mission to study the state’s tourism assets and to see how industry had grown in Sikkim.
Senior government officials, including East district collector D. Anandan and police superintendent M.S. Tuli, received Modi, who has come with only an aide, at the Libing helipad where he flew in on a chopper from Bagdogra this morning. A heavy security blanket had been thrown around him.
After taking rest in a hotel, Modi visited the directorate of handloom and handicrafts and interacted with artists. He then drove to the Himalayan Zoological Park, the Tashi View Point and the Namgyal Institute of Technology.
In the evening, the visiting chief minister strolled down MG Marg, shook hands with a few local people and exchanged pleasantries with the bystanders.
“He asked me how I was doing. It was really nice of him,” said Sonam Bhutia, who had come to see the man about “whom she had read so much”.
Modi, however, kept mum when asked what he felt about Sikkim. Instead, he did a namaste to the journalists at MG Marg.
Tomorrow, after a visit to the India-China border at Nathu-la, Modi will meet governor B.P. Singh and chief minister Pawan Chamling. On October 17, he will fly to South and West districts to visit tourist spots before returning to Gangtok.
Modi is scheduled to leave Sikkim on October 18
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