Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has voiced profound concern over the theft of

Rabindranath Tagore's memorabilia and expressed his desire to visit Santiniketan, Union minister Mamata Banerjee said.

Addressing a press conference after meeting the Visva Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Sujit Basu in Kolkata today, Banerjee said, "'I have apprised the prime minister of the situation at Santiniketan."

The prime minister, who is also the chancellor of the university, had told her that he was worried, Banerjee said, and added that dates for the prime minister's visit to Santiniketan had been fixed.

Expressing surprise that the police had not been able to find any clue even 48 hours after the detection of the theft, Banerjee flayed the state government for "failing to act in time to arrest the deteriorating social environment in and outside the campus".

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