Journalism of Courage
Reacting to Mamata Banerjees recent prediction that the Lok Sabha polls would happen in a few months and her Trinamool Congress would be back at the helm in Railway Ministry,MoS for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Thursday asked her to clarify whether she would support an NDA coalition at the Centre.
Mamata should declare her stand. Whom will she support,NDA or UPA. If NDA comes to power,will she support Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, Chowdhury asked while releasing a status paper on 18 rail projects announced for Bengal by Trinamools railway ministers since 2009.
Mamatas popularity is waning rapidly. Only time will tell who will come here, said Chowdhury,a Congress strongman in West Bengal.
The minister said he has found that almost all rail projects announced for Bengal in the last three years have made little perceptible progress because the state government is not doing its bit.
In spite of huge fund infusion,no progress has been made in the projects yet, Chowdhury added.
These projects were announced without feasibility study and statutory clearances,he alleged,adding that they were announced for the sake of announcement without proper planning.
Asked whether the projects will be dropped by the government now,Chowdhury said,Though Railways is facing a severe financial crunch,we are not for scrapping these projects. There is no question of discrimination against any projects. We want the execution of these projects.
