Mamata defends expense for advertisements

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee has defended the expenditure in advertisments for organising railway programmes and pilloried the Communist Party of India-Marxist trying to make an issue out of it.

"We have every right to advertise. You (CPI-M) publish advertisements without doing any work. You are angry with us because we work," Banerjee said at the inauguration of a new railway line between this pilgrim town and Talpur in Hooghly district.

She said Indian Railways had taken up a large number of projects, many of which had been completed and that was why the railway published its success stories through advertisements.

Banerjee said the Left Front government had published advertisements in newspapers claiming successful implementation of projects which were far from complete.

"We are part and parcel of the United Progressive Alliance and will keep on working. If necessary I will provide clarifications on the expenses," she said at the function on Sunday.

The project had been started during Banerjee's earlier stint as railway minister in the National Democratic Alliance government.

She said when she took over the Railways again in 2009 she learnt that it had made little progress. Blaming the CPI-M for not getting the project completed, she said,

"You were part of UPA-I. Why didn't you exert pressure to get the project completed? Just because you have not done anything, do you expect me to do the same? You cannot stop me from working."

Banerjee said the railways would provide a job to one member of each family who gave up their land for laying tracks for the Tarakeswar-Bishupur railway line.

At the function, CPI-M-controlled Tarakeswar municipality chairman, Ajit Pratihar, presented her a bouquet on the dais saying he had come to greet her as she was doing good work for the people.

Banerjee also renamed a station between Bishnupur and Bakulnagar near Basudebpur after tribal leader Birsa Munda and the Talpur station as Katha Shilpi Saratchandra.

She also announced a number of projects for Tarakeswar which would be developed into a multi-functional complex.

The railways would also extend its cold chain facilities to the area for potatoes.

Image: Mamata Banerjee