Replace Trivedi with Mukul Roy - Mamata to PM
PTI
Angry over the hike in passenger fares in the Railway Budget, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to remove her party nominee Dinesh Trivedi from the post of Railway Minister. “Yes, I have written to the Prime Minister seeking his replacement with Mukul Roy, another Union Minister,” Ms. Banerjee told PTI. The action of the West Bengal Chief Minister came late in the night after Mr. Trivedi’s stout defence of his proposal for across-the-board increase in rail fares to net Rs. 4,000 crore in the Budget.
Throughout the day, 61-year-old Mr. Trivedi had been maintaining that whatever he had done was in the interest of the railways and the country and that he was not worried out the loss of his job. After the Railway Budget was presented Ms. Mamata Banerjee emphatically declared that she will not allow the Railways to hike fares. “We will not accept this hike in fares. I assure you,” Ms. Banerjee said at a function in Nandigram organised to observe Krishak Diwas (Farmers Day).
The Trinamool Congress chief said that the party leadership was not informed about the decision to increase fare and the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party had already made its stand clear on the issue. “We are not in favour of increasing fares,” she said. Soon after Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, the party’s sole representative in the Unions Cabinet, announced an increase in passenger fares during his Budget speech, Sudip Bandopadhyay, leader of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party and Union Minister of State for Health, told journalists that the party was demanding a withdrawal of the decision.
Trinamool MPs meet Trivedi
A team of Trinamool Congress MPs met Railway Minister and party colleague Dinesh Trivedi soon after he presented the Railway Budget in which he proposed to hike fares across all classes.
Mr. Bandopadhyay said that the TMC MPs asked the Railway Minister to roll back the fare hike. When pointed out that Mr. Trivedi was a member of the Trinamool Congress, he said the Railway Minister has performed his “Constitutional duty” by presenting the Budget.
‘I don’t mind losing my job’
Meanwhile, Mr. Trivedi said in New Delhi that he was only doing his duty towards the country and was not worried about the consequences. At the same time, the minister said, if his leader wanted him to quit he would readily do so. “I don’t care about the job. Bhagat Singh gave up his life for the country. I don’t mind losing my job.” Asserting that his budget was an economic budget and not a political one, the Minister said that he did not want the railways to go the Air India way. “I have pulled the railways out of the ICU,” he said.
Stating that he had not consulted Ms. Banerjee on the budget, Mr. Trivedi said it was a “very big misconception” that Railways is run from Writers Building, the headquarters of the West Bengal government in Kolkata. “She (Banerjee) did not know anything at all and there was no interference by her in any aspect of the budget,” he affirmed.
Throughout the day, 61-year-old Mr. Trivedi had been maintaining that whatever he had done was in the interest of the railways and the country and that he was not worried out the loss of his job. After the Railway Budget was presented Ms. Mamata Banerjee emphatically declared that she will not allow the Railways to hike fares. “We will not accept this hike in fares. I assure you,” Ms. Banerjee said at a function in Nandigram organised to observe Krishak Diwas (Farmers Day).
The Trinamool Congress chief said that the party leadership was not informed about the decision to increase fare and the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party had already made its stand clear on the issue. “We are not in favour of increasing fares,” she said. Soon after Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, the party’s sole representative in the Unions Cabinet, announced an increase in passenger fares during his Budget speech, Sudip Bandopadhyay, leader of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party and Union Minister of State for Health, told journalists that the party was demanding a withdrawal of the decision.
Trinamool MPs meet Trivedi
A team of Trinamool Congress MPs met Railway Minister and party colleague Dinesh Trivedi soon after he presented the Railway Budget in which he proposed to hike fares across all classes.
Mr. Bandopadhyay said that the TMC MPs asked the Railway Minister to roll back the fare hike. When pointed out that Mr. Trivedi was a member of the Trinamool Congress, he said the Railway Minister has performed his “Constitutional duty” by presenting the Budget.
‘I don’t mind losing my job’
Meanwhile, Mr. Trivedi said in New Delhi that he was only doing his duty towards the country and was not worried about the consequences. At the same time, the minister said, if his leader wanted him to quit he would readily do so. “I don’t care about the job. Bhagat Singh gave up his life for the country. I don’t mind losing my job.” Asserting that his budget was an economic budget and not a political one, the Minister said that he did not want the railways to go the Air India way. “I have pulled the railways out of the ICU,” he said.
Stating that he had not consulted Ms. Banerjee on the budget, Mr. Trivedi said it was a “very big misconception” that Railways is run from Writers Building, the headquarters of the West Bengal government in Kolkata. “She (Banerjee) did not know anything at all and there was no interference by her in any aspect of the budget,” he affirmed.
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