Downplaying her absence from the Union Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday morning, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said there are no differences between her party and the Congress. She added that she will attend the United Progressive Alliance meeting to present the coalition's 'report card' on the completion of one year of its second stint.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, a strong votary of dialogue with Maoists and has sought a halt to joint security operations against them, had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday.
With the Rail Budget scheduled to be presented in the Lok Sabha on July 3, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that it will be a people's budget.
Trinamool Congress chief and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she is not a 'seasonal flower', in another apparent snipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who recently visited West Bengal. Mamata also said she does not do politics from a 'bed of gold'. Pointing to her life style, she said "I wear hawai chappals because I like wearing them and not because someone says so."
According to railway ministry sources, Banerjee is in a hurry to start the train services she had announced in her Budget in July last year.
The country's first point-to-point, non-stop train, Duronto express was on Friday flagged off from Sealdah station by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee as a 'Durga puja' gift to the people.
In a thanksgiving budget, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday proposed no increase in passenger fares or freight tariff while announcing a slew of measures including launch of 12 non-stop point-to-point long-distance trains and air-conditioned double-decker coaches for inter-city travel.
Families of the two policemen, who were kidnapped by Maoists on July 30 as they stepped out of their security camp in Dharampur in Lalgarh District, have arrived in the national capital to meet Union Railways Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram. Sources said that Banerjee is aiming to derive maximum political capital from the West Bengal government's inability to counter the Naxal menace effectively.
On May 28, 2010, Maoists derailed the Jnaneshwari Express, killing 148 passengers.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday rejected the demand of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee for an inquiry into the killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad. "Please tell me under which law the Centre should initiate an inquiry into the encounter killing of Maoist leader Azad, I am asking my non-lawyer friend (Bharatiya Janata Party leader) Yashwant Sinha," Chidambaram said while replying to a discussion in the Lok Sabha.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday demanded an inquiry into the derailment of five bogies of the Howrah-Dehradun Doon Express in Uttar Pradesh, stating it should be probed whether it was an 'accident or an incident'. "Since the accident has taken place during a countrywide bandh, we want this to be probed. Who has caused this mishap? It has to be seen whether this is truly an accident or an incident," Banerjee, a former railway minister, said.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has again displayed a mercurial mind. Months after keeping the University of Cambridge, UK, waiting for an answer to its invitation to deliver a lecture and then saying she'd come, she's decided not to go.
Sudheendhra Kulkarni, former political aide to senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, has joined a key committee of the Railway Ministry. Kulkarni, who dissociated himself from the BJP on Saturday citing ideological differences, on Wednesday, said that he had joined a committee appointed by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is under attack for her reported pro-Maoist statements, on Friday refused to be drawn into the issue in Rajya Sabha saying she will fight her political battle outside Parliament.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist on Saturday rubbished suggestions by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee that a political conspiracy was behind the Gyaneshwari Express disaster in West Midnapore, alleging that she was trying to cover up lapses and failures of her ministry in the incident. Senior CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury also said some elements were 'cynically' using the situation to further their petty partisan interests.
In an interview with rediff.com's Anisha Ralhan, M G Arora, former executive director of safety, Indian Railways, explains how lobbyists and deflectors operating at different levels have corroded the lifeline of the nation.
Insiders said she remained closeted with top railway officials for hours finalising the Budget on Tuesday and left her Rail Bhawan office only at 3.30 am on Wednesday.
An FIR was lodged by the Trinamool Congress after a car trailed Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee when she was returning home from a meeting in Kolkata, but it turned out that the 'pursuers' were television journalists seeking an interview with her.
Marking the anniversary of the end of the 34-year-old Communist Party of India - Marxist rule in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, flanked by her supporters, on Sunday took out a march and claimed that her government had fulfilled most of its poll promises.
Stating that the Budget is passenger friendly, Mamata Banerjee said the annual plan for 2011-12 is Rs 57,630 crore.
Questioning the suggestion that Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee should mediate between government and the Maoists, the Communist Party of India Marxist on Friday wondered how she could do that when she was 'openly siding' with the ultra-Left brigade.
She said that the budget will have approach for 'inclusive growth' and expansion of rail network to take development to every corner of the country.
Accusing the Marxist government of unleashing 'state-sponsored terrorism' in West Bengal, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday warned that it would invite 'punishment' if the government did not act constitutionally.
Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy was on Tuesday elevated to Cabinet rank to take over as Union railway minister replacing Dinesh Trivedi, who was forced to resign after Congress caved in to Mamata Banerjee's pressure.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has suspected the involvement of Maoists in the derailment of the Gyaneshwari express on Friday as the incident comes on the first day of the 'black week' being observed by the Naxals.
Kolkata-based quiz master Derek O'Brien and leading artist Shuvaprasanna will head two separate committees set up by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee to improve passengers' amenities and services in trains and stations.
It will be helpful advice for a chief minister-in-waiting who is going to have to deal with empty coffers and overflowing expectations
Sonia Gandhi would never have smiled so much publicly as she did today during presentation of the Railway budget by Mamata Banerjee, which by all accounts was a spirited exercise.
Despite being in the Opposition in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is 'setting' the agenda for the state government. In the past weeks, the government has taken three major policy decisions for which the Trinamool Congress had been agitating to make a public opinion.
Last year, she drove the Tata Motors' Nano factory out from West Bengal. Three days ago, Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee turned down another Tata offer a donation of Rs 27,70,660 to her party from the Tata Sons Electoral Trust.
The ambitious project of the urban development ministry, pegged at Rs 4,676 crore, was originally scheduled to be completed in 2015. It is to be executed through a joint venture company of the central and state government. Equity participation of the state and central government will be on a 50:50 basis. But soon after taking charge of the railway ministry, Banerjee had a talk with Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy about her apprehensions.
Triumphant over the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in making it swallow threat to quit the United Progressive Alliance government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked the party managers to strike a similar hard bargain with Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress for alliance in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections.
Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, say sources, plans to close deals, which would create jobs either in Erie, Pennsylvania or in LaGrange in Obama's home state of Illinois.
Trinamool Congress's slogan of 'Satatar Pratik' (symbol of honesty) has been challenged by BJP's slogan, 'Gali, gali mein shor hai, Mamata Banerjee chor hai'.
With conflicting reports on the cause of the train accident near Mathura, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to go for a Central Bureau of Investigation enquiry into the mishap.
After a five-day waiting game, Railways Minister Dinesh Tiwari has resigned, according to Trinamool Congress sources. Tiwari met with TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, and expressed his willingness to quit.
'The more you challenge her, the more powerful she gets'
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha who joined Trinamool Congress on Saturday narrated how West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had offered to go as a hostage in exchange for passengers of Air India's IC 814 that was hijacked by the militants over two decades ago.
Countering the CPI-M's charge that she was anti-industry, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday asserted she was only against forcible acquisition of land and never opposed setting up of any factory.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could be staring at troubled times ahead as the Saradha scam trail seemingly leads up to her doorstep.
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