Speaking to The Financial Express late on Monday night, Mr Paswan said: "No final decision has been taken as yet. But I can assure you that I will not let the Hajipur railway zone close down. I will resign from the Cabinet if any such decision to close down the Hajipur zone is taken. I have had discussions with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee twice on this matter and have been assured that no such steps will be taken."

It was learnt that the Union finance ministry in particular has expressed inability to grant Rs 900 crore for setting up these zones which include Hajipur (Bihar), Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), Jabalpur and Bilaspur (Madhya Pradesh), Bangalore (Karnataka), Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Bhubaneswar (Orissa).

Meanwhile, sources in the East Central Railway told The Financial Express on Monday that apart from the establishment cost of Rs 32 lakh per month all infrastructure development funds sent to the Hajipur zone earlier have been stopped since the last one year. The post of general manager (last incumbent RL Mallik was transferred to the Railway Board on August 30 this year) has been downgraded and a new officer (Mr KK Aggarwal) who will take charge of this zone soon will be designated as additional general manager-cum-officer on special duty.

Budgetary allocation for the Hajipur `zone' is provided under the head of North Eastern Railway (Gorakhpur). Mr Paswan is particularly worried about his home constituency Hajipur, having inaugurated the zonal headquarters of the East Central Railway here on July 21, 1997. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda laid the foundation stone for the zone on September 8, 1996. It was proposed that the Hajipur zone will have four divisions under it - Sonepur and Samastipur, at present under North Eastern Railways, Danapur under Eastern Railways and Katihar under the North Frontier Railway.

Hajipur's East Central Railway has full-fledged infrastructure and nearly Rs 15 crore has already been spent on building a 90-room zonal office with latest equipment like computer with Internet facilities in virtually all rooms of the office.

When asked how much more money is needed for making the zone fully operational, a senior officer deputed in this `zone' on condition of anonymity said - "There has to be a political will to set up the zone first.

Not more than Rs 15 crore is required to make this Hajipur (East Central Railway headquarter) fully operational. The infrastructure, control rooms and all facilities are already existing here and I can say for sure that this is the most modern railway zonal office of the country."

Bihar alone contributes 41 per cent to the total freight carried by the Indian Railways and is the maximum generator for freight revenue in the country.

Leaders like former members of Parliament - Mr Anand Mohan and Mrs Lovely Anand (Bihar Peoples Party) and Mr Tariq Anwar (Nationalist Congress Party) have joined hands against any design to make the headquarters of East Central Railway - Hajipur - an ornamental entity of the Indian Railways. Mr Anwar said -"Bihar after its bifurcation will have nothing to generate revenue. We must protect and ensure that all development work undertaken by anyone should see the light of day." Mr Anand Mohan was of the view that "Even West Bengal has two zonal headquarters in Calcutta. Bihar, the maximum freight revenue earner and the second most populated state in the country does not even have one full functional zone. How can we let go the Hajipur zonal headquarters? It is impossible."

"We will not allow this to happen and all the trains passing through Bihar will be blocked if any move by the Centre is taken to close down this zone," Mr Mohan threatened.

Both Mr Tariq Anwar and Mr Anand Mohan walked the 22km stretch from Hajipur's East Central Railway headquarter office to Raj Bhawan in Patna to lodge their protest and ensure that the zonal headquarter is not closed down by any "sinister designs".

However, ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal president and the former Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav has refrained from offering any comment on this issue. Mr Paswan, who is still hoping that the telecom employees would stop their agitation against the corporatisation of the telecom sector and is expecting the impasse to be settled soon said: "Bihar will soon be truncated after the creation of Jharkhand. When we talk of development we mean development inall fields. A zone will help develop the general economy of the state."

Giving a clarion call to all his fellow Union ministers from Bihar (there are 12 of them), Mr Paswan said: "We must protect Bihar and pledge a will to develop the state." Mr Paswan was here to address a "Vikas (development) Rally" on Tuesday in Patna.