India

Mamata blames CPI-M for mishaps

The railway minister said she suspected CPI-M's hand in the Sainthia and the Jnaneswari Express mishaps.

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KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today suggested CPI(M)'s hand in the train accident in Sainthia and the Jnaneswari Express mishap and ruled out resigning on moral grounds.

"I am prepared to resign if the CPI(M) guarantees that it will not indulge in sabotage," she said slamming the Marxists for demanding her resignation in the wake of Monday's accident in Birbhum district which left 66 persons dead.

Banerjee, who had resigned twice earlier as union minister, said people were ringing her up to tell her not to walk into CPI(M)'s trap by quitting.

"They have been planning sabotage. They are trying to ruin the (reputation of) Railways by letting cockroaches into food. It is time for the CPI(M) to go. The Jnaneswari Express accident took place on May 28 two before the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections," she pointed out.

Banerjee was addressing her party's mammoth Martyr's Day rally organised in the memory of 13 Youth Congress workers killed in a police firing here on this day in 1993.

"The accident at Sainthia occurred on July 19 before our Martyr's Day rally today. Both took place around 2:00 am. Many people were killed. This should be probed. The CBI is investigating the earlier accident.

"They (Marxists) are not planning development, but opening clips on tracks. Some comrades are drawing up scientific plans. After the Jnaneswari (accident) they strung up a poster claiming that it was an accident. Who were behind it should be investigated. It is sabotage," she said.

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