Minister Mamata: new wheels but old ways

The innocuous silver-coloured Maruti Zen made its way through the gates of Rail Bhavan on Thursday....

The innocuous silver-coloured Maruti Zen made its way through the gates of Rail Bhavan on Thursday,going almost unnoticed till its driver pulled up to allow his front-seat passenger to disembark. As she alighted from the car,dressed in her trademark white Dhonekhali sari for her first day in office in Delhi,Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee took almost everybody,including the RPF security personnel,by surprise.

Many in Rail Bhavan still vividly recall how Mamata used to arrive for work in an old Fiat car owned and driven by a trusted aide,having said no to the official conveyance,during her first stint as Railways Minister in 1999. The only thing that has changed between then and now is the car. This time she will be using a Maruti Zen owned by Ratan Mukherjee,her Man Friday who has assumed office as her Additional Private Secretary.

Mamata played down attempts to rake up a controversy over her stated plans to spend more time in her home state West Bengal,saying what matters is performance and not the place of operation. If I stay in Delhi 365 days of the year and my performance is zero,what use will that be? she asked.

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Asked about her immediate plans for the Railways,Mamata said she will first take stock of the situation. I know what to do and what not to do. I have worked here earlier for one year and five months, she said.

On whether her ministry would stick to big plans like setting up world-class railway stations,the Trinamool leader said that the economic situation will have to be examined. She also underlined that this year,the Railways will have to pay out Rs 14,000 crore to implement the Sixth Pay Commission and hinted that this might limit the financial flexibility of her ministry. Mamata reminisced that the last time she was in the same post,she faced a similar situation.

In fact,apart from the shift from Fiat to Zen,Mamata is determined to keep things the way they were. The only reason the Fiat is being abandoned is that it is very old. It is a 1978-mode, says her aide,who owns both the Fiat and Zen. I shifted to a Zen seven years ago and this is the car Didi will use. As in the past,I will be driving the car, adds Mukherjee,who has known Mamata since her student days. Her philosophy is that since she will not have access to official facilities once she ceases to be a minister,she would rather not get used to them.

In fact,ministry old-timers still recall how Mamata would pay from her own pocket for the tea and refreshments she ordered for her official guests. Today,as she took charge of the Railways after an eight-year gap,one of her aides handed out a Rs 20 note to a peon asking him to bring a bread-toast for the minister.

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Mamatas aversion to using official facilities,however,has some of her partymen worried. Last time around,she chose to stay in her M S Flats accommodation. She associates this residence with the birth of the Trinamool Congress, says one of them. Party colleagues are trying to convince her to move into a bigger house,given that more MPs means more space would be required to entertain them.

Mamata has also stuck to her team of trusted lieutenants.