Mamata making railways East India Company: BJP

September 29th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday stepped in to bail out some of the passengers stranded due to the Air India pilots' strike. She arranged for special trains on various routes and asked union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy to run an additional service of the Shipping Corporation of India Wednesday to bring back the air passengers stranded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

September 13th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday alleged that West Bengal's ruling Communists are "conspiring" against the Indian Railways and said "they will be responsible if any accident occurred". "The CPI-M is constantly conspiring against the railways.

September 12th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday said that her ministry has already begun an austerity drive and taken several cost-cutting measures to reduce additional expenditure. "I'd issued an order to cut all additional expenditure and it's already been implemented in the railways," Banerjee said while flagging off two new trains -- Sealdah-Ajmirsharif Express and Farakka-Nabadwip Express -- from Sealdah station here.

August 20th, 2009 KOLKATA - Rubbishing talk that efforts are on to privatise the Indian Railways, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said she would be the last person to do so. "In some quarters there is mischievous talk that we are trying to privatise the railways.

July 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday said the country was awaiting the white paper promised by Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee on the railways' performance in the last five years. Banerjee told parliament July 3 that she would come out with a white paper on the actual performance of the railways in the past five years when Lalu Prasad headed the ministry.

July 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Indian Railways has over 1.7 lakh vacancies for various grades, which will be filled in after reviving the existing recruitment process, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee informed the Rajya Sabha today. Replying to a question, Banerjee said the review of the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) would also examine regional aspirations and problems raised during the railway recruitment process in Maharashtra, Assam, and Karnataka.

July 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Despite the slowdown that has seen job cuts across sectors, the Indian Railways will fill 1.7 lakh vacant posts after reviewing the recruitment process, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said Friday. The Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) will review the hiring process and address regional aspirations and problems witnessed during recruitment in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Assam, Banerjee told the Rajya Sabha.

July 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said her ministry would look at providing infrastructure and land for setting up Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). "We might even look at building IITs in the future," Banerjee told the Lok Sabha in a discussion on the railway budget.

July 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley Tuesday criticised Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee for taking the Indian Railways into "non-core areas", and said that will threaten its economical and social viability. "The fundamental principle of any efficient management is to concentrate on core area of competence and ignore all non-essential and non-core activities," Jaitley said while participating in a discussion on the railway budget in the Rajya Sabha.

July 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Praising Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee's budget Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said she had done a "very competent job" and had not just ensured that there was no burden on the passengers but also taken care of their safety. Banerjee had done a "very competent job in a short period of time.

June 14th, 2009 HOWRAH - The Indian Railways will run 66 pairs of special trains carrying pilgrims to Puri in Orissa for the June 24 Rathyatra festival, railways minister Mamata Banerjee said here Sunday. The railways will also run special trains between Sealdah in Kolkata and Rajasthan's Ajmer Sharif, which houses the mausoleum of sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, on June 25 and June 26 for the celebration of the Urs or annual pilgrimage.

June 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said she had not taken a decision on disinvestment in railways. "No communication regarding disinvestment in railways has come to me.

June 7th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railway passengers should be more vigilant about their own security while commuting, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said Sunday night. "People, mainly the railway commuters, should be more vigilant about the security matter.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said that Indian Railways' determined efforts will be to keep enhancing passenger amenities and comforts to a higher level, both in trains and on railway stations. In her message to the Railway personnel after assuming the charge of office of the Union Railway Minister, Banerjee urged all the railwaymen to provide 'service with smile'.

May 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee, who broke convention Tuesday to take charge of her portfolio here instead of the national capital, identified the speedy completion of eastern freight corridor as being crucial to her scheme of things. "The eastern freight corridor between Kolkata and Ludhiana is very important and will be completed very soon," said Banerjee, adding: "It's very important for the development of four states - West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab." Also, the Bihar-Howrah express train, which was renamed as Kandari Express, will be made a daily train.