By IANS,
Kolkata : Without naming the Maoists, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday condemned subversive activities targeting train passengers and described the saboteurs as “cowards”.
Banerjee’s comments came hours after suspected Maoist ultras cut the connectors between two tracks and tried to bend the line between Jhargram and Khatkula stations of West Midnapore district a short while before the New Delhi-Puri Purushottam Express was to cross the affected 400 metre stretch.
A possible accident was averted after the gangmen spotted the miscreants trying to bend the line and informed the railway authorities immediately.
“Those trying to do acts of sabotage targeting railway passengers are cowards. Only cowards try to kill people like this,” Banerjee said after flagging off six trains at Howrah station near here.
“If you want to fight, fight on the turf of politics. Else if you have any grudge against me, tell me. Give me the time and place, and I will be there,” she said.
“Today I am the railway minister. Tomorrow I may not hold the post. This is not my parental property. It is the country’s property,” she said.
West Bengal’s ruling communists have time and again accused main opposition Trinamool Congress chief Banerjee of being hand-in-glove with the Maoists.
Banerjee, on her part, has maintained that the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Maoists were two sides of the same coin and accused the Marxists of trying to capture political turf by raising the Maoist bogey.
She said the gangmen who prevented the accident near Jhargram will be rewarded.