Questioning railway minister Mamata Banerjee's claim that she has cleared a backlog of 2.3 lakh vacancies in her department, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday said not a single person has been employed. "There are two lakh vacancies. Not a single person has got employment in the Railways. What is happening in the Railways," Bhattacharjee said at a public meeting here. Banerjee had stated at a railway programme at Budge Budge yesterday that there was a backlog of 2.3 lakh vacancies in the Railways which were cleared by her and that the vacant posts would be filled.
Earlier on January nine at a rally at Singur, Bhattacharjee had also questioned jobs in the Railways and claimed that Banerjee was being untruthful and taking her responsibilities lightly as the railway minister.
Accusing Trinamool Congress of trying to create trouble in the state, Bhattacharjee exhorted the people, especially the poor not to have faith on the TC and Congress.
Noting that both the opposition parties were those of the rich, he said, "Congress and Trinamool Congress are for the rich. Don't make a mistake. Don't believe them. We are not the party for the rich.
"We are not born to be ministers. We launched a struggle on the streets for the poor. We have reached Writers' Building through our struggle. We never ditched the poor."
Ridiculing Trinamool's slogan for bringing in 'change', he asked "what does it mean? We have achieved success in agriculture, we have set up the panchayat system in the state. Will they change it? In the name of bringing change, we will not allow them to destroy these."
Expressing his resolve to continue with the industrialisation drive, he said, "They have stopped us at the (Tata Motors) factory at Singur. It harmed the state. But Singur is an exception. They cannot stop industrialisation in the state. The largest steel plant is being set up at Salboni."
Reiterating his charge of a TC-Maoist link, he said, "Trinamool has joined hands with Maoists when we are trying to stop them."
