For Minister Mamata, nothing changes

Mamata stays in a two-room house on Baba Khadak Singh Marg which was allotted to her as an MP. She comes to the office in an ancient light-green Fiat car of her personal secretary, Ratan Mukherjee. quot;I don8217;t need a full-time Government car only to go from home to office and back,quot; she says.

The first thing she did on assuming office was to order for a Press Corner in front of her office in Rail Bhawan. This was a promise she made to West Bengal journalists about 10 years ago when a similar Press Corner in front of Chief Minister8217;s office inWriter8217;s Building was dismantled by Jyoti Basu.She has two big burdens 8211; her promises to West Bengal and aggressively pro-poor stance. And in one week, she has showed that she means business.So it8217;s Kolkata-chalo8217; time in the Ministry of Railways.

All the seven members of the Railway Board including the chairman are flying to Calcutta on Saturday to quot;review the performance of Eastern Railway ER, South-Eastern Railway SER and Calcutta Metro.quot;

They will look at the safety provisions, cleanliness and the state of the infrastructure 8211; all in just four-odd hours they will be spending in Calcutta, the zonal headquarters of the three.

quot;Mamata Banerjee is trying to send the message across that she is serious about the implementation of the West Bengal package. The visit, otherwise, will serve no purpose whatsoever,quot; an official at Rail Bhawan said. quot;For a proper assessment of each railway zone, the members need to spend at least two-to-three days talking to the officers working in the field.quot;

TheMinister, Mamata Banerjee, said that it was a routine visit for assessment. quot;They are going for official work. I am not going,quot; she added.The next on the agenda, is the poor.

So at a recent Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha told her to be prepared to hike railway fares. She jumped up saying, quot;No way. I won8217;t raise the fares. I would rather strive to generate revenue from alternative sources,quot; she said.

She refused to budge when on her first day in office, Railway Board officials presented a gloomy picture of the ministry8217;s financial position and suggested a fare hike.

Some Board officials tipped off a news agency about a possible fare hike. When reporters rushed to the Minister for a clarification, she was the one who was surprised. quot;I don8217;t know how it came about. I will have to check. But I can assure you, I am not going to raise rail fares. I will compensate that by increasing efficiency of my employees,quot; she said.

From day one, she has tried to show that she means business. Herfirst official directive was a Central Bureau of Investigation CBI inquiry into the Gaisal train accident.

She chose an innovative way on Thursday to raise money for her department: to appeal to the 700-odd MPs from both Houses to contribute Rs 5 lakh each from their constituency fund to help her man the thousand-odd unmanned level crossings in the country.

Minister of State for Steel, Dilip Ray, approached her on Thursday to request that Railways should buy steel from Steel Authority of India Ltd SAIL and not from foreign companies. Mamata readily agreed but on one condition: Ray would ask SAIL to take charge of at least 100 unmanned level crossings. Ray agreed and Mamata grinned.