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Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi
In a letter (a copy of which is with rediff.com) written to the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on June 21, 2002, Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Dr Nitish Sengupta took the Union Minister for Railways Nitish Kumar to task for bifurcating Eastern Railways saying, 'no minister should have a right to behave like Mohammed bin Tughlaq'.
Describing the creation of a new railway zone with Hajipur in Bihar as its headquarters 'as a decision without proper application of mind', Sengupta lists out various 'economic and historical factors' as reasons for Trinamool's opposition.
He wrote, "The railways in India were laid out on the basis of connecting the main port city and the main industrial area with the hinterland. That explains the rise of Bengal Nagpur Railways, East India Railways or Bombay and Baroda Central Railways or Great Indian Peninsula Railways. This basic principle was generally kept in view while reorganising the railways on the basis of zonal arrangement in 1953."
"I am afraid, the present proposal of Shri Nitish Kumar militates against this principle completely," he said.
Going into history, Sengupta claimed that when the old Eastern Railways was bifurcated in 1953 into Northern Railways and Eastern Railways, there was 'serious opposition in Bengal' from Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Dr B C Roy.
"In fact, Dr B C Roy went out of the meeting when Nehru was present. Nehru had to change the then Railways Minister, Shri Gopalaswamy Iyengar, and bring Lal Bahadur Shastri," Sengupta said.
He said that Shastri then assuaged the feelings of West Bengal by establishing a marshalling yard at Mughal Sarai, retaining it in Eastern Railways and adding Sealdah Division to it.
"At the same time, the old Bengal-Nagpur Railways was revived as South Eastern Railways up to Nagpur and Vizag," Sengupta said.
Pointing to the 'avoidable financial burden' in establishing a new headquarters in Hajipur, he said, "Eastern Railways already has a very impressive headquarters in Calcutta with full complement of staff."
"Even if for argument's sake one has to assume that yet another zone is necessary what is the justification for locating the headquarters at Hajipur, and not at Dhanbad, in Jharkhand, which is the main railway centre in this area?" Sengugta asked.
He also contended that if Dhanbad Division and Mughal Sarai Division are taken out, Eastern Railways would be reduced to 'only a Greater Calcutta suburban railway system'. "There will be a fear of large-scale transfer of staff and other problems of substantial nature," he added.
Sengupta also said the Rakesh Mohan Committee report expressed itself against any changes in the zonal railway system.
He also warned the prime minister that similar demands for reorganisation of Central Railways, with Nagpur as the headquarters, may arise.
Slamming Nitish Kumar, Sengupta wrote: "No minister should have a right to behave like Mohammed bin Tughlaq and simply issue orders for such drastic changes without taking into account the views of the various experts and without having the stamp of approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which I am sure is a requirement here."
"I should therefore request you, Mr Prime Minister to make a personal intervention in this matter and stay this decision until all these matters are gone into. Alternatively, I feel there will be serious political agitation in Bengal, which will be beyond the competence of any government to control," he said.
Dinesh Trivedi, Trinamool MP, told rediff.com that officer on special duty in Prime Minister's Office, Sudheendra Kulkarni, was keen to resolve the issue on July 1, 2002 when he met Mamata Banerjee in presence of George Fernandes.
"Kulkarni said, 'why not resolve the issue now?' At 3pm, just three hours before the swearing-in ceremony of new ministers, George Fernandes assured Mamata Bannerji that he will talk to the prime minister about the issue. But George Fernandes never got back," Trivedi claimed.
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