Click to play videoRailway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday presented a people-friendly Budget leaving passenger fares and freight charges unchanged. She also introduced over 50 new trains and new ticket schemes. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN's National Affairs Editor Diptosh Majumdar, Mamata explained that she tried to please every part of the country.
Diptosh Majumdar: Everyone is saying this is a Santa Claus come to town budget. There are goodies for everyone and everyone is praising it including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. So how did you plan this Budget in so little time - just a month-and-a-half? Are we seeing the evolution of the Mamata Banerjee who believed that social viability is more important than economic viabilty?
Mamata Banerjee: I am grateful to the honourable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who extended all cooperation to us as well as Congress President Sonia Gandhi. But I am thinking of two points. Number one there is a social compulsion and number two is the economic obligation. For social compulsion, I thought that there were some areas which had been left out from the development process. Those parts we cannot leave out only because they are socially not viable. Even areas which do not have railway lines or development infrastructure are assets to our country. From the economic or commercial obligation point of view it balances itself out because we are using this to create more and more developmental infrastructure this time around. Through this Diamond Corridor, which is a landmark, we will aim at developing infrastructure. The western corridor is already progressing and we will help the eastern corridor develop as well. That is why we will give it a boost up through landbanks.
Diptosh Majumdar: Will you explain that concept of landbank which is a very new phenomenon. How will you use it?
Mamata Banerjee: There is so much land which the railways have and that is why we have set up a landbank. We are planning to set up an expert committee which will give us an expert plan dedicated to the Diamond Freight Corridor. With this business plan, we want to make railway land available for industrial hubs. Through this landbank, land will be easily available. Number two, instead of spending money from internal generation we can offer land - which is our asset - and give them technical services, operational services. They (industries) can come and invest their money through a public-private partnership. I want to invite industrial houses from all over the world and ask them to come and invest. This will be the bright future for the country.
Diptosh Majumdar: Are you learning from the Nandigram and Singur experience that you are creating a model where development will go hand-in-hand with industrialisation and also with ensuring that there is poverty alleviation and measures which are there for inclusive growth?
Mamata Banerjee: You there are areas where land is captured forcefully and there you face a problem. If you take small pieces of land like five or ten acres then it is not so much of a hassle as is when you take 10,000 or 15,000 acres. Industrialists can purchase their own land - there is nothing binding there, no problem there. That is why I think we should utilise our landbank and I think it is the duty of every government to set up a landbank so that there is no quarrel and everyone can go and utilise land - agriculture and industry both.
Diptosh Majumdar: Talking of landbank, one question which arises is that there is a lot of squatting and encroachment which happens on railway land - from your own city of Kolkata to a lot of places in Mumbai? How do you want to tackle that problem because a lot of land cannot be freed.
Mamata Banerjee: You see there are some places in which people have been staying for the last 10-20 years. They may be poor or downtrodden people but I don't like to evict them because that is not my policy. We want to be humane. But there are many areas which have been left out and land is easily available and we will go there for the purpose of acquiring land.
Diptosh Majumdar: You have made some tremendous innovations in the entire Rail Budget. It is easy to see - for example your optical fibre laying plan, a plan which has been brought back after it was shelved in early 2000. Are you involving Sam Pitroda in this?
Mamata Banerjee: Yes my department has talked to him and we are very grateful. He has given us an expert opinion and I want to make him the chief advisor of the business plan. When I was there in 2000-2001, that time also I brought him from America and he started working also. Then I resigned and he also went away. This time I have made him the chairman of my advisory committee and this optical fibre laying plan is a great idea for my business plan.
Diptosh Majumdar: So Sam Pitroda is already on board. What about the other plan which you have made of point-to-point, direct railway trains without halt? There will be technical halts I presume. People want to know a little more on that.
Mamata Banerjee: Technical halts are for destinations which are too far from each other - take for example Kolkata to Chennai. You have to change the driver on the way because they cannot work for 24 hours and to check all the technical operations and stock up on essentials like food and water.
Diptosh Majumdar: But no tickets will be sold from these halt places?
Mamata Banerjee: No. This is a non-stop. It is for people who cannot avail the opportunity of a Rajdhani or flights. They can use these trains - some dozen of them - which will start from one point and stop at another. That I am planning for the freight too, which will be a good plan.
Diptosh Majumdar: But for freight them you will need the entire corridor and you will have to do a feasibility study of Chennai-Goa corridor and other corridors.
Mamata Banerjee: That we will see.
Diptosh Majumdar: In 2000-2001, I remember Mamata Banerjee doing a lot of sudden inspections, checking out the food and the quality of services. Why are you delaying doing that this time?
Mamata Banerjee: No, no, we are doing it very quietly.
Diptosh Majumdar: There is a question of implementation to. People in your hometown are saying that this is a great plan and we are very happy but how much can Mamata Banerjee implement. And CPM is also going to closely monitor all the projects that you have undertaken.
Mamata Banerjee: Whatever projects I made a commitment to in 2001-2002, everything was implemented. And now also I am saying that according to my Budget, every programme will be implemented.
Diptosh Majumdar: One political question. Lalu Prasad has not liked this Rail Budget. Do you think Bihar was getting a little too pampered because it was getting successive ministers from the state and that you have changed that pattern?
Mamata Banerjee: We have a brother-sister relationship with Bihar. All states are our friends and neighbours, but sometimes someone gets more and someone gets less. We have compulsions too and we have to balance everything, but I really like the state of Bihar. Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Digvijay Singh are all from there and I love all of them.
Diptosh Majumdar: But there was one line in your Rail Budget speech in which you said that the previous Budget had some unrealistic attestments.
Mamata Banerjee: See all the sundry work, which was kept for commerical utilisation did not materialise. It's not practical and we can't do much about it. We will try not to do anything which will be a mistake. We will try and make sure that the financial aspect is healthy.
Diptosh Majumdar: Impractical as much as the previous Budget was which you pointed out...
Mamata Banerjee: That was an Interim Budget and this is the final Budget and that is why I can point out.
Diptosh Majumdar: What about the fact that you seem to be coming closer to the Gandhi family today? You remembered Rajiv Gandhi in your optical fibre scheme, you have given a lot for Raebareilly.
Mamata Banerjee: See, the leaders of this country never ask, but you have to take care of it all. I gave so much to Guwahati too which is the Prime Minister's constituency and I igave Farraka-Delhi for Pranab Mukherjee's. Why don't you ask me about that? There are some people who are working day and night for the country and you have to take care of them. They will never ask you. It is for you to decide.
Diptosh Majumdar: How much is Prime Minister involved in your Budget making?
Mamata Banerjee: All... without his blessing how can I do all this. I am very grateful and obliged to him.
Diptosh Majumdar: What do you have to say to your critics who say West Bengal has benefited from you?
Mamata Banerjee: I have 20 MPs. We are the first allies of this Government. I have given all the seats to all the states. For 15 days I worked day and night up to morning 4 o'clock. I have done everything for all the states, wherever the opportunity is there. And after doing work for all states if I don't do anything for my state then I will lose face. I am very outspoken and I am very transparent. I said one project for my constituency.
Diptosh Majumdar: There were some politically sensitive places where you are going to do development like Lalgarh, double-gauge from Nandigram to Singur, you are going to take a train to Alipore where you lost by a small margin to the Left. So are these politically significant decisions too?
Mamata Banerjee: This time because of paucity of time, we were not able to go to the Planning Commission and all. So wherever lines exist, we have given small-small linkages. Nothing else. I thought for example that there is a line in Midnapore and we can connect it to tribal areas. I gave the proposal of a 1,000 MW power plant for Adra, which is at the border of Jharkhand and West Bengal and it consists of completely tribal population. We have used our vision, or creativity and come up with these plans.
Diptosh Majumdar: You have raised very high expectations with your first Rail Budget. A lot of people will be happy with it, but the question is that people will always think that you are heading for West Bengal in 2011. How long will the Railway Minister remain the Railway Minister in Delhi? Will you give only two Budgets or three Budgets?
Mamata Banerjee: I cannot say all these things… there is no reply to ifs and buts - but I will continue to work for the people till I am alive, till democracy is alive.
Diptosh Majumdar: You have recently won, almost unnoticed, 13 out of 16 municipalities along with Congress. The big elections of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and more than 100 municipal elections are coming up in West Bengal. Are you seeing a seat change? How many are you going to win? 90? That is what your people are saying.
Mamata Banerjee: It will be a sweep, a complete sweep. Maa, maati, manush will win. Two words are very common in this word: maa means mother, two maati means soil. My motherland - maati means motherland. Manush is human being.
Diptosh Majumdar: This has become your slogan and it is reflected in the Budget?
Mamata Banerjee: No, no. This slogan has been used by Mahatma Gandhi ji, Dr Ambedkar, Dr Abdul Kalam, Rabindranath Tagore and even by Bhagat Singh. This slogan is to popularise their vision with our action.
Diptosh Majumdar: A lot of people are now converting to Trinamool - a whole lot of people from CPM. Will you be accepting all of them irrespective of their background?
Mamata Banerjee: I don't think all Leftists are bad. Only the CPM have been left behind by Left politics. I accept the background, ideology and philosophy of the Leftists. There are some good people there who we love and respect. I respected people like Indrajeet Gupta and Geeta Mukherjee who are now no more. I respect Somnath Chatterjee too and many others. But the CPM has forgotten everything which they had committed themselves too. Now they are just all about muscle power - goons with guns - and we don't like it at all. But we don't want those who are progressive in the Left to be left out, those who believe in progress and democracy. They must come to us.
Diptosh Majumdar: What happens if they change Buddhadeb Bhattacharya as Chief Minister of West Bengal?
Mamata Banerjee: No matter. But India is changing and there will be change in Bengal too. 32 years of Left rule - enough is enough.
Diptosh Majumdar: There is some criticism coming from finance people saying that you won't be able to balance your Budget. You have got Rs 15,000 crore from the Government and you are also getting Rs 15,000 crore of your own revenue. That adds up to Rs 30,000 crore but you plan to spend Rs 40,000 crore.
Mamata Banerjee: So what? I will get the income and earnings from our target, from freight, from land-tel corporation from land-use - commercial utliisation of land and space. All Budget provision is there and without that I haven't done anything. Otherwise why would the Finance Minister or the Government approve our Budget?
Diptosh Majumdar: Your critics are saying that you are spending very little time in Delhi.
Mamata Banerjee: In the last one month I was there for only two-three days and I haven't met the people from my constituency even. I apologise for that. First there was the election, then alliance, Government formation, oath taking, then Parliament session began and then the Budget came. It was very hectic. Today I am relieved. Please give me some time to take some rest too.
Diptosh Majumdar: Mamata Banerjee thank you very much for talking to CNN-IBN.
Mamata Banerjee: Thank you very much.
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