Stop blowing tracks, let’s talk: Mamata to Maoists

KOLKATA: Railway minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday challenged the outlawed CPI (Maoist) to face her politically instead of carrying out subversive activities on the railway tracks in different parts of the country, including West Bengal, and killing innocent people.

Ms Banerjee was inaugurating some long-distance trains at the New Complex of Howrah station on Wednesday, which included Howrah-Yashwantpur Duranto Express, Howrah-Delhi Yuva Express, Howrah-Purulia Express, Howrah-Hardwar Express and Kolkata Bikaneer Express.

Incidentally, the Maoists had removed fishplates on a 400-metre stretch near Gidhni station in the Naxal-infested West Midnapore district. However, no casualty was reported as railway gangmen found their mischief and informed the top railway officials at Kharagpur station who stopped the New Delhi-Puri Purushottam Express at the station, averting a major accident.

“If the Maoists have any grudge against me, then I am ready to face them. Let them identify a location and fix up time and I am ready to meet them. But they should not indulge in subversive activities such as removing fishplates and placing explosives on the railway tracks which can claim lives of hundreds of innocent railway passengers,” she said.

She said “today I am the railway minister. Tomorrow I may not be in the same position. After all, the railway is not my paternal property. It is a national property and everyone has the responsibility to protect it. The Maoists should not indulge in such activities at the cost of lives of innocent people”.