By IANS,
Kolkata : Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday appealed to all political outfits not to disrupt train services to fulfil their political agenda.
“The Indian Railways serve the common man. Disruption of railway services should not be used to score political brownie points,” she said here while flagging off several trains.
“Be it the Maoists or the others, those who want to fight me, should fight politically. Don’t use the railways to fight me. Railways carry more than 1.5 crore people per day,” Banerjee said.
“And why should you kill people? Railways are a soft target. But one should remember what will happen to the poor people, for whom the railways are often the only means of transport?” she asked.
Banerjee’s comments came in the aftermath of the Howrah-Kurla Gyaneshwari Express tragedy in which 148 train passengers died May 28. The Express derailed after alleged Maoist rebels cut open pandrol clips (used to fix the rail to the sleeper) for over 50 metres near Jhargram of West Midnapore district. A speeding freight train then rammed into five derailed bogies of the express leading to the high death toll.
The intellectuals close to the Trimanool Congress, have, however, blamed West Bengal’s ruling Left Front major Communist Party of India (CPI-M) for masterminding the derailment.
Train services were also disrupted for about six hours Saturday after a bomb blast damaged three feet of track in Tamil Nadu’s Villipuram district