Says white paper on railways not aimed at fixing the RJD chief.
After having raked up a storm by announcing her intent to present a white paper on the railways’ functioning in the last five years, it was time for railway minister Mamata Banerjee to mollycoddle her predecessor Lalu Prasad.
The occasion came during her reply to the railway budget a day after she had questioned Lalu’s claim of having left the railways cash rich with Rs90,000-crore reserves.
As Mamata rose to respond to the over 12-hour debate, in which 131 MPs took part, the usually-cantankerous minister reflected the lighter side of her mood. In the face of laudatory references, particularly by the BJP benches, to the white paper, she turned towards Lalu and promised that the “white paper will have colourful ideas in black and white”.
Amidst peals of laughter she made every attempt to assure Lalu that the proposed white paper was not aimed at fixing him and in fact would be an attempt to get a true picture of the prevailing state of affairs in the railways. “It is meant to give a broader view of the railways, particularly its financial standing,” she observed.
As Lalu nodded in appreciation, the irrepressible Mamata lost no time in challenging his theory of projecting cash reserves of the railways as his achievement. In a rather candid assertion, she said the railways was not meant to build bank balances but infrastructure.
Focusing on Lalu, she reiterated that her tirade was not directed at him as the cash reserve of Rs90,000 crore had come down to Rs8,361 crore mainly because of expenditure incurred on works such as clearing employees’ sixth pay commission dues.
The next in Mamata’s line of fire was BJP MP Anant Kumar who had on Wednesday initiated the debate on the railway budget and tried to corner her on schemes such as laying optical fibre and setting up a land bank for better management of railway land.
“You had lauded the very schemes announced by me during the NDA regime, but these could not be implemented at that time. I am surprised you have suddenly changed tack,” she said.
Mamata announced various measures to tone up the functioning of the railways in terms of amenities and safety that included setting up an expert committee to prepare future plans.
Pandering to the strong regional sentiment in various parts of the country, she declared her intent to work for a 50% quota for locals in railway jobs. Her promise to see that question papers for entrance exams were prepared in regional languages drew a thunderous applause.
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