Mamata Banerjee meets Manmohan Singh over rail budget

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and is understood to have discussed issues related to the rail budget for which she wants adequate support from the finance ministry.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was present at the meeting, said it was a pre-budget interaction with the prime minister and nothing more should be seen beyond it.

Railways is facing financial crunch to fund several key projects and meet its targets.

The Sixth Pay Commission has considerably depleted its resources as railways had to fund Rs55,000 crores arising out of its internal resources.

The much delayed dedicated freight corridor project is also facing a problem of finance.

With the assembly elections in her home state round the corner, Mamata is likely to come out with a budget which would be friendly to common man.

Trinamool MPs had met Singh last month drawing his attention to the deteriorating law and order situation in the West Bengal.