Banerjee Defends Expenses for Railway Advertisements
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has defended the decision to spend in advertisements for organizing railway programmes snubbing CPM for attempting to make an issue out of this, said media reports.
“We have every right to advertise. You (CPM) publish advertisements without doing any work. You are angry with us because we work,” Banerjee was quoted as saying while inaugurating a new railway line between this pilgrim town and Talpur in Hooghly district.
The minister highlighted that Indian Railways took up a number of projects and many of them had been accomplished and so the railway published its success stories through advertisements, reports said.
She alleged that the Left Front government published advertisements in newspapers claiming successful implementation of projects which were far from complete, said reports.
“We are part and parcel of the UPA and will keep on working. If necessary I will provide clarifications on the expenses,” she was quoted as saying.
The project was initiated during Banerjee’s earlier stint as railway minister in the NDA government.
She said that while against taking over the Railway in 2009 she came to know that little progress had been made into the project, reports said.
Blaming the CPM 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 that 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, said reports.
(Based on internet reports)
