India, Sept. 18 -- West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 76th birthday, announcing the day would be celebrated every year as Annapurna Diwas, marking the distribution of a monthly allowance of Rs 3000 to women that was once guaranteed by the Prime Minister before the Bengal elections. More than 1.6 crore women have been receiving the monthly allowance, Government sources said.

Referring to the Prime Ministerial announcement that a list of 50 lakh beneficiaries of the PM housing scheme was being prepared, Adhikari said all the allottees in that respect would be women. In what could further cement BJP's stranglehold on Bengal, Adhikari, during a programme, said, "the Prime Minis...