RailEnquiry

KOLKATA: More than 12 hours after the horrific train blaze, railway minister Mukul Roy was still in Kolkata because of poor connectivity to Nellore. But all the delay did was to trigger afresh the buzz about the Trinamool leader spending more time with his party's CM in Bengal than in New Delhi."The first available flight to Chennai from Kolkata is at 3 p.m. I am taking that. I have asked the senior officials to rush to the spot," Roy told reporters in Kolkata.A section of officials at the Railway Board believe Roy's absence from Delhi is affecting performance of the huge rail operation and some indicated that it would certainly help taking quick decisions if the top man was in office. In the last month, Roy has been in New Delhi for 13 days and that too because his leader Mamata Banerjee was in and out of the capital for negotiations on the presidential election."One should see the activity that takes place at Rail Bhavan when the minister is in office. If the minister is not present, the atmosphere is more casual. Had it been so easy to run a ministry by remote, most Union ministers would have preferred to spend time in their own states," said a rail official.Another official pointed out that Roy is taking his political portfolio as All India General Secretary of the Trinamool Congress more seriously than his position as railway minister. "He is moving around West Bengal with Mamata Banerjee. Recently, he spent a few days in north Bengal with the Bengal chief minister. Soon after his return, he went to Bolpur and Burdwan. During such trips, it would have made a lot of difference had he interacted with railway officials more instead of accompanying Mamata everywhere," he said.

Roy has no satisfactory answer to this perception. He believes that the huge operations require appropriate technology to avert accidents. "We run nearly 20,000 trains over 67,000 route km. There are nearly 8,000 stations. The situation is such that even a single error can cause a major accident. Our officers have prepared detailed project reports and I have spoken to the Prime Minister for release of funds that will be required for technology upgradation. This is the only way to prevent accidents. We shall get to know of his decision in the next few days after which the Planning Commission will have to clear the projects," he said. However, the railway minister gave no deadline for the technology upgrade.

Roy is no exception. Even Mamata Banerjee as railway minister between 2009 and 2011 spent more time preparing for the assembly elections than at Rail Bhavan.

During his first interaction with the media in Kolkata after taking over as railway minister, Roy had said that it didn't matter whether he spent more time in Kolkata or Delhi. "What matters is whether I am doing my work or not," he had said.