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Some people trying to malign the Railways: Mamata

– PHOTO: PTI

ONE MORE: Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee flagging off a new train at Howrah on Monday.

KOLKATA: Claiming that “some people” were trying to malign the Railways, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, without naming the Communist Party of India (Marxist), repeated her charge here on Monday that it was responsible for sabotage and derailing trains just because she is the Minister.

“While the Railways are able to do work, the others, who are unable to implement projects themselves, are criticising us,” Ms. Banerjee said, alluding to the Left Front government.

“There should be competition to see who can get the work done,” she went on to suggest at an event at Howrah railway station from where she flagged off six new trains.

Ms. Banerjee admitted that “people from other States have to wait for hours merely to request for a single train” whereas she had introduced “200 new trains” and several other projects in West Bengal and “this should be looked at in a positive light”.

Countering criticism that she has only laid foundation stones but no work has been seen on ground, Ms. Banerjee listed the various projects that were under way, particularly the factories of the Railways coming up in various towns in West Bengal.

Taking digs at the Left Front government for the violence “in setting up a single factory,” she said that she had proved that “industry can come up without the help of the gun” claiming that work had silently progressed in all the factories of the Railways.

“Hundred per cent of the trains promised in last year's budget have started and it shall again happen this year,” she added.

Reacting to protests repeatedly made by the CPI (M) that the Trinamool Congress chief makes promises of jobs for the youth even as nearly two lakh posts in the Railways remain vacant, she said that recruitment to fill the vacancies was already in progress.

“I was not the Railways Minister for ten years…There is a backlog in filling vacancies, but it cannot be cleared overnight,” she said, adding that due processes have to be observed.

On frequent disruptions in the services of the city's Metro Railway, Ms. Banerjee said that nearly one lakh additional passengers were commuting in the trains and things will take time to settle down.

“Had there been alternative means of transport it would not have been so troublesome,” she added.

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