Sparks flew at the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure meeting on Thursday, when Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee suddenly sought approval for as many as 24 rail projects worth more than Rs 15,000 crore.
A reluctant Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee finally approved these projects, but WITHOUT any financial assistance and only after delivering a stinging rebuke to Mamata over her style of functioning, reports Business Standard.
The report, quoting sources said, Mamata Banerjee sent these proposals to Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar around midnight on Wednesday with a request to put them on the agenda in the next day's meeting.
Tempers ran so high, the report said, that an angry Pranab even told Mamata: “I know you will go out and tell the press that I have not approved development projects for Bengal and other parts of the country. But, I will not give you the chance. I am approving all these projects right now.”
Out of the 24 projects, at least 10 are related to West Bengal, which include expansion of four stretches of Kolkata Metro rail, new connections in North Bengal's Dinajpur and hilly areas and additional funds for Madhepura, Bihar, rail engine factory.
The Prime Minister at the meeting also questioned whether the Railways could implement these projects, given the paucity of funds. Tension and drama ruled at the meeting, when Mukherjee lashed out at Banerjee saying: “You may like to be populist and show that you are doing a lot. I also understand that your eyes are on the state Assembly polls and you want to tell your audience in the state that you care for them. But, please remember, there is a way a government functions and this is certainly not it”.
On Mukherjee's stern statement, Mamata's eyes welled up and tears ran down her cheeks. Another minister Kumari Selja got up to console her, while Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh offered her his handkerchief. Pranab Mukherjee was unmoved, the report said. He announced that he was approving these projects, but without any financial commitment.
“You can go ahead and announce them in your Budget. But if you want to implement these projects, you have to arrange for funds yourself”, the Finance Minister told the Railway Minister.
On the PM's directive, Mamata Banerjee took part in the consultations on Railway Budget with Pranab Mukherjee on Friday evening.
The report says, the spat was a spillover from the cabinet meeting earlier in the day, when Mamata sided with DMK minister M K Alagiri and NCP minister Sharad Pawar and raised apprehensions over winding up of fertilizer subsidy.
Pranab snapped at Mamata saying : “You want to be populist and at the same time reformist. You are not ready to hike railway fares but are promoting public-private partnerships. But, when we want to bring major reform in fertilizer prices, you have questions”.
The report further says, behind closed doors, a furious Pranab Mukherjee has said, Mamata's sole ambition was to destroy the Congress in West Bengal by discrediting him and other Congress leaders ahead of the Assembly polls next year. “As long as I am alive, I will not let that happen. She may try to dub me as someone not co-operating in the development of the state, but people know what I am doing for the state as well as the country. I do not require certificates from her”, Pranab told a close aide.
