Mukul Roy snubs PM, refuses to visit accident site

Mtoday news / PTI

Kolkata, Jully 11: Minister of State for Railways Mukul Roy has snubbed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and refused to visit the accident site in Kamrup district of Assam where an improvised explosive device was used to trigger the blast that led to the derailment of the Guwahati-Puri Express on Sunday night.

 

 

"I am not the Railways Minister, the Prime Minister is," replied Roy in Kolkata when asked if the country deserved a minister who is absent from his job.

Roy, who is the front runner to become the Union Railways Minister in Tuesday’s Cabinet reshuffle, will accompany West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to Junglemahal on Monday. He is considered to be the right-hand man of Mamata.

The Prime Minister had earlier pulled up Roy and directed him to visit the train accident site in Assam.

Singh is currently handling the Railways Ministry along with three ministers of state KH Muniappa, Bharatsinh Solanki and Roy. Apart from Railways, Roy is also the Minister of State in the Ministry of Shipping.

Muniappa met the passengers of thee ill-fated Kalka Mail at Fatehpur along with Uttar Pradesh Governor BL Joshi.

Two major train accidents took place on Sunday in which at least 67 people were killed and over 300 others injured.

In the first accident Howrah-Kalka Mail was derailed when the driver applied emergency brakes near Fatehpur Malwan railway station in Uttar Pradesh at 12.20 pm. The accident saw 67 people losing their lives and over 250 others injured.

At least 50 passengers were injured after six coaches of Guwahati-Puri Express were derailed following a improvised explosive device blast near Rangia in Assam’s Kamrup (Rural) district on Sunday evening