Special appearance in Delhi today: Mukul as Rail Minister

Party over duty: Roy has spent most of his time as Union minister in Kolkata

Railway Minister Mukul Roy will be signing a memorandum of understanding with the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium for cooperation in the railway sector on Thursday. This will be one of his very rare appearances in the Capital,where he chooses to arrive only once in a while and leaves for Kolkata in a jiffy earning the name absentee minister.

Roy has been missing in action at his designated office in Rail Bhavan since the time he took charge,and has kept the Railway Ministry running on auto-pilot mode. The last time he was in Delhi was on Tuesday,when he flew in early morning after visiting the accident site on Monday evening at Nellore,where at least 30 people died after a coach of TN Express caught fire. He left for Kolkata even before lunch time.

At Nellore,Roy reached at around 6 pm even though the accident had occurred at around 4.30 am. He cited the unavailability of a flight as the reason for his delay.

Of the 115-odd working days he has had as the Railway Minister,Roy has attended his office in Rail Bhavan only a handful of times. Since there is no system of registering the ministers attendance,railway officials dont have the exact count of days when Roy was present in his office,but the estimate is around 20.

Roy invariably misses the weekly Board meeting at Rail Bhavan which usually takes place on Wednesdays. But whenever he is in Delhi,he meets either the whole board or at least the Chairman.

Roy is following in the footsteps of his party chief Mamata Banerjee who had almost a similar track record of attendance as the Railway Minister.

The Rajdhani Express from Delhi to Kolkata is used every day to load bags full of important files to be sent to Roy,usually at his office at Nizam Palace for his perusal. The files return to the Rail Bhavan the same way. Last three months have seen inordinate delays in the key appointments of general managers and divisional railway managers and the delay is,unofficially,attributed to the ministers absence.

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Last month,Roy came to work in Delhi around four times once only for half a day on July 6,just to unveil a cleanliness drive of stations along with the tourism ministry. Again,his 12-hour stay on July 14 was not for Railways but to attend a UPA lunch to discuss a vice-presidential candidate.

On July 24 and 25,again,his appearance in Rail Bhavan was just a sideshow as his main assignment was to accompany Mamata to President Pranab Mukherjees swearing-in. He left a few hours after Mamata left Delhi.

Not just that,Roy has also been missing the EGoM meeting on drought and bunked the past few Cabinet meetings.

Roy is unfazed about his continued stay in Kolkata where his role as Trinamool Congresss national general secretary he is second only to Mamata in the party keeps him busy.

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He has reportedly often told his railway colleagues that in this day and age of advanced communications technology,it hardly matters where the minister chooses to sit to conduct his business. Statistics will show how many days I have come to Rail Bhavan. In any case I dont have to come to office every day, Roy told The Indian Express.