Mamata resigns, Vajpayee declines

Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 4 — The Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, today submitted her resignation owning “moral responsibility” for Saturday’s train disaster in Punjab, but the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, declined to accept it.

Her resignation had been rejected, the Prime Minister said at the Navy Day function and added that she had been asked to continue in office.

Ms Banerjee, who tendered her resignation for the second time in the last two months—the first being over the increase in oil and gas prices on September 30—said in her letter to the Prime Minister that as head of the 1.6 million-strong railway family she could not avoid taking responsibility for the accident in which 43 persons were killed and 100 injured. She however, maintained that the minister was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the Railways.

“I reached the conclusion that in order to adequately respond to my conscience, I should resign from the office of the Railway Minister”, she said in the letter.

Ms Banerjee said that she had consistently done “soul searching” ever since the news of the accident reached her.

The minister put in her papers early in the morning. She however, attended the Lok Sabha and made a suo motu statement on the train accident.

Ms Banerjee’s resignation came 48 hours after the accident. She was charged with spending more time on the state politics in West Bengal rather than on attending to work relating to the aftermath of the disaster.

The Left parties were quick to make political capital of the accident with several leaders launching a blistering attack on the firebrand West Bengal leader.

Soon after she made the statement in the Lok Sabha, a CPI member, Mr Basudeb Acharia, demanded her resignation owning responsibility for the accident. Left members said the minister owed an explanation to the House over the inordinate delay in reaching the accident site. Instituting an inquiry did not mean much, they said.

The grand old man of West Bengal politics and an adversary of Ms Banerjee, Mr Jyoti Basu, was unsparing in his criticism of the Railway Minister. The former West Bengal Chief Minister said in Calcutta that Ms Banerjee was shirking her responsibility by resigning and her only intention was to gain political mileage.

Ms Banerjee, on her part, indicated that she was not averse to continuing in office saying she did not want to destabilise the National Democratic Alliance. “Till now, I have not spoken to the Prime Minister who is the captain of the NDA team. I have sent my resignation as a human being to fulfil my moral obligation”.

Speaking to newspersons after submitting her resignation, Ms Banerjee said the loss of lives had touched her heart.

“I don’t see the operational side of the Railways but only the administrative aspects. But as a human being, the accident had touched my heart” she said.

Even if one person dies in a rail mishap “I feel guilty”, she said, adding India had the world’s second largest rail network and there was need for more care and safety.

She said this was a crisis year for the Railways and the system needed to be revamped.

Denying that she had delayed in reaching the accident site spot on Saturday, she said as soon as she was informed about it in Midnapore, she tried to reach the spot. However, there was only one flight from Calcutta by which she travelled to Delhi and went to the accident site directly.

Ms Banerjee said she was not attending to West Bengal at the cost of her ministry and added that she went to the state only on weekends. “I spend the maximum time for the ministry. I have not gone abroad even to neighbouring Sri Lanka”, she said.

Refuting charges that the maintenance of railway tracks had been neglected, Ms Banerjee said this year Rs 2000 crore was allocated for this work, which was a 26 per cent increase.

She praised the people of Punjab for showing courage and humane feeling by coming to the rescue of the passengers after the accident. She said she was moved by this gesture and had therefore announced Rs 20 lakh for promoting development works in the villages concerned. The villagers had also urged for a flyover which she would consider sympathetically.

The photographs of the victims, most of whom were travelling in the general compartments, were being telecast on television for their identification by their family members, she said.

On the students travelling by the train to appear in an examination for job recruitment, the minister said she would examine if her ministry could help them.

For the first time, bodies of the accident victims were being embalmed so that these could be preserved for the families, she added.