IANS NEW DELHI DUBBING the NCTC as worse than POTA and TADA, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convey her reservations over the counter terrorism provision.

“The meeting was good,” Banerjee said when asked by reporters after the discussions with the Prime Minister for the first time after the Dinesh Trivedi issue broke out.

“There is no breaking news,” she remarked when asked whether there was any breakup or breakdown of the Trinamool Congress with the Congress-led UPA. Banerjee also defended her party’s walk out in the Lok Sabha on the NCTC saying since the Trinamool Congress was part of the Government it can not vote against and therefore it has maintained decorum by walking out.

“The NCTC is worse than TADA and POTA,” she said.

Her meeting with Prime Minister appeared to have the desired result. Mukul Roy, whom the Trinamool Congress has named as Cabinet Minister to succeed Dinesh Trivedi as Railway Minister, will be sworn-in on Tuesday.

Banerjee, who forced Trivedi to quit as the Railway Minister after he proposed hike in the passenger fares in the Railway budget, indicated that there will be some roll back if there is a Railway Minister of the Trinamool Congress.

“If our nominee will become Railway Minister then we will modify the fares. There is no problem in the hike in upper class fares. We have no objection..
it is tolerable. But for those who are poor, who travel daily in trains or those who travel in sleeper classes, it matters,” she said before going to attend the Trinamool Parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi. She further said “common people travel in sleeper classes. Whatever we do, the common people should not suffer. This is our policy.” Banerjee said she has no plans to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi who is also UPA Chairperson as “she is not well. I do not want to disturb her,” Banerjee said.

Replying to a question, Banerjee whose party with 19 MPs is the second largest constituent of the UPA after Congress, said that “Federal Front is already there. We have ties with all the states.” Meanwhile, in a related development, the resignation of Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi isa “drama” but it reveals the factionalism in Trinamool Congress, the CPIM said on Monday.

The entire issue is aimed at projecting the Trinamool as a pro-people party, said an editorial in the Communist Party of India-Marxist official organ Ganashakti.

“The resignation drama came to an end by keeping the entire parliament in the dark.

It is unbelievable that Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee was unaware that a fare hike was there in the rail budget,” said the editorial.

Trivedi lost the Trinamool leadership’s backing after he hiked passenger fares in his railway budget on Wednesday.

Banerjee demanded a rollback of the tariffs. On Wednesday night, Banerjee urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to replace Trivedi as railway minister with Mukul Roy.

“Openly opposing the rail budget was a strategy of Banerjee to project her party as pro-people,” the daily said.

“But the fact is that Trinamool, being an ally of the UPA, (is) part and parcel of all the anti-people policies and decisions,” it said.

The editorial added that that replacement of Trivedi as railway minister was a fallout of infighting within the party.