M A I N   N E W S

PM, Advani face Mamata’s ire

Kolkata, July 30
A day ahead of the Trinamool Congress working committee meeting here to decide its relationship with the NDA following the Union Cabinet’s rejection of her demand for revoking the bifurcation of Eastern Railway, party chief Mamata Banerjee today rejected a Cabinet berth and made a veiled attack on Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani.

She told mediapersons here that NDA convener George Fernandes spoke to her over telephone last night shortly after the Cabinet decision and offered her a Cabinet berth, besides an economic package for West Bengal.

“I rejected the offer of Cabinet berth which is not important for me now”, Ms Banerjee said.

Criticising the Cabinet decision to go ahead with bifurcation, she launched a veiled attack on Mr Advani.

“Fernandes told me that the PM tried to help us on the issue, but he failed,” she said, adding “We want to know who is the real Prime Minister? It seems the PMO has been hijacked and the Prime Minister has been isolated.”

She said she or her party had not been consulted when the decision to appoint a Deputy Prime Minister had been taken but “still we went to congratulate him (Advani).”

The Trinamool chief also accused Mr Vajpayee of “ditching” West Bengal. “The Prime Minister is not only of Bihar. He is the Prime Minister of the country, but he ditched West Bengal,” she said.

She said she would appeal to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to convene an all-party meeting to take a united stand on the ER bifurcation issue.

“But if nobody joins us, the Trinamool Congress will announce its agitational programme after tomorrow’s working committee meeting of the party”, she said. PTI

Rail row: walkout by Trinamool

Trinamool Youth Congress activists protest against the bifurcation of the Eastern Railway in Kolkata on Tuesday. — PTI photo

New Delhi, July 30
Union Cabinet’s yesterday’s decision to go ahead with the bifurcation of the Eastern Railways came up in both Houses today with agitated Trinamool Congress members staging a walkout in the Lok Sabha and members from various parties in the Rajya Sabha expressing divergent views on it.

Raising the issue during zero hour in the Lok Sabha, party member Sudip Bandhopadhyay said the bifurcation move was totally against the interest of West Bengal and sought revocation of the decision before trooping out of the House with other colleagues.

Party supremo Mamata Bannerjee had strongly condemned yesterday’s decision of the Union Cabinet to stick to the 1996 decision stipulating division of the Eastern Railways.

Passions ran high in the Rajya Sabha also as members from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh vehemently opposed the Cabinet decision while those from Bihar and Orissa welcomed the move.

Raising the issue during zero hour, members from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh said the Centre should desist from implementing the decision as it would lead to disunity in the country. However, members from Bihar and Orissa stated that railways in their states had been neglected for long and the implementation of the decision to bifurcate the Eastern Railways was the need of the hour.

Initiating the discussion, Mrs Sarala Maheshwari CPM said the decision was not in the interest of the country. Describing the Cabinet’s decision as a “great assault on federalism”, she said it would promote narrow regionalism.

Mr Pranab Mukherjee (Congress) said he would not like to go into the merits of the issue but wondered why the government slept over it when the decision to bifurcate the Eastern Railways had been taken way back in 1996. The government should consider the entire matter dispassionately in consultations with Chief Ministers of the states concerned, he said, adding that it should also explain to the people how the bifurcation was going to help the railways operationally as well as financially.