The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mamata promises a ‘human face’ for the Railways

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Mamata promises a ‘human face’ for the Railways

K. Balchand

NEW DELHI: New Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday promised travel passes for students and heavily subsidised passes for those below the poverty line.

When reporters sought her out after the portfolio was allocated to her, Ms. Banerjee spelt out her vision of lending a “human face” to the Railways.

As Railway Minister in 1999, Ms. Banerjee proposed to make passes available at Rs.15 a month to those earning less than Rs.400 a month but that did not come through. She now proposes to charge Rs.20 a month. The Minister quickly added that the technicalities would have to be sorted out before giving final shape to the scheme, which would benefit labourers in the unorganised sector, domestic help, vendors and landless labourers.

Ms. Banerjee later left for Kolkata saying she would take charge of her Ministry after the Union Council of Ministers was expanded. “We are a family. My assuming charge doesn’t look good. We all will assume charge together on Tuesday or Wednesday.”

On Friday Ms. Banerjee was reluctant to take the oath but gave in after Pranab Mukherjee insisted that it would send a wrong signal in the context of the developments on the DMK front.

The new Railway Minister said she would formulate plans for her department on her return from West Bengal after taking stock of the demands there.

Rail Bhawan here was awaiting her return. Preparations were made on Friday itself for her to start her second stint after almost eight years. As an NDA ally she held the portfolio starting 1999, presented the Budget for 2000-01 and quit in early 2001 to ally with the Congress to contest the Assembly elections. The 54-year-old law graduate has had problems with her successors from Bihar — Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad — over several decisions that she considered as being detrimental to West Bengal.

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