Mahajan had asked for Dadar station renaming, says Paswan

Tuesday, August 12 1997

Mahajan had asked for Dadar station renaming, says Paswan

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, August 11: Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today took the wind out of the Shiv Sena's charge in Lok Sabha, that he wanted to create divisions amongst people of different castes when he had demanded that Dadar railway station be renamed as Chaitya Bhoomi, by saying that high-flying Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Mahajan had asked for the change.

As Shiv Sena member Anant Geethe accused the calculating Railway Minister of indulging in caste politics and trying to sow seeds of discord in Maharashtra, Paswan showed him a letter which Pramod Mahajan had written to him on May 3, 1997 and said that similar requests had come from treasury benches in the state assembly.

Anant Geethe, then alleged, during the resumed discussion on supplementary demands for grants for railways, that by offering jobs to the family members of the victims of Mumbai firing incidents in the railways, Railway Minister Paswan was trying to provoke the Dalits. He asked Paswan not to ``disturb the peace in Mumbai''.

Iliyas Azami of the Bahjuan Samaj Party, however, supported Paswan for the station's change of name. He said it would not change Dadar's historical importance.

Meanwhile, Pramod Mahajan urged Paswan to look into the demands of the station masters in Central Railway, saying they had started a `go slow' agitation in Mumbai to press for their pay-commission related demands.

When Bhanu Pratap Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that lakhs of rupees were passing hands in the railway ministry for finalising postings, Paswan asked him to put the allegations in writing.

The Railway Minister also assured him that action would be taken against the corrupt officials if the charges were found to be true.

Supporting the supplementary demands for grants, Mullappally Ramachandran of the Congress demanded that more funds be allocated to the railway ministry from the general budget."A political game"

*It's political game said Pramod Mahajan tonight and charged Paswan with trying to create discord between the Shiv Sena and the BJP over the Dadar renaming issue. He said as a MP he forwards numerous memoranda on various topics to the ministries concerned for perusal and the letter in question could be one of them.