Didi’s absence delays projects

By now it has become accepted practice for railway m,inister Mamata Banerjee to operate more often out of Kolkata than New Delhi, because she wants to keep abreast of what’s happening in the state before it goes to the polls in 2011.

However, Mamata’s frequent absence from cabinet meetings is proving costly for the railways. Many projects are being held up because no progress can be made without her nod. Her absence has also forced a break on the recruitment process — several key posts are yet to be filled up.

The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) is the most important project on which a decision could not be taken because Mamata wasn’t present during a cabinet meeting on September 10. The WDFC would stretch from Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Maharashtra to Tughlaqabad in New Delhi. The ministry is supposed to get a loan of Rs17,700 crore from the Japan government for the project.

The minister’s frequent absence is hampering the recruitment drive too. Some key posts of divisional railway heads of southern, south-central, east-central and north-western railways as the well as the post of the chief of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works is vacant for quite sometime.

Officials said that of the 12 cabinet meetings so far, Mamata just attended five. In August, she was out of Delhi for 19 days. The Trinamool’s explanation is that she’s had to skip cabinet meetings because she’s busy inaugurating one or the other railway service.