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West Bengal delegation meets Advani, Nitish

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 9. The controversy kicked up by the last month's bifurcation of the Eastern Railway, which also cast its shadow over the Union Cabinet reshuffle, refuses to die.

An all-party delegation from West Bengal, excluding the Trinamool Congress, today met the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, with its demand for maintaining status quo in the Eastern Zone and setting up an expert committee to look into the issue.

While Mr. Advani assured the delegation that he would take up the matter with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on Thursday, Mr. Kumar said that an expert committee could not be set up by him at this stage to reconsider the bifurcation. After meeting the delegation, Mr. Advani told reporters that he would meet the Prime Minister on Thursday. "George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar will also come. It is George who has been dealing with the issue,'' Mr. Advani said.

Asked if any decision had been taken on setting up an expert committee to review the matter as demanded by the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, he said the issue would be discussed on Thursday. Mr. Kumar, after meeting the delegation, told reporters that the discussions were "free, frank and cordial''.

Mr. Kumar said that the background and rationale behind the creation of new zones was explained to the delegation and it was assured that it would not affect the interests of Eastern Railway and West Bengal. He said creation of the new railway zones was the "natural culmination'' of a Cabinet decision which was in accordance with the law and under the Railway Act. He told the delegation that he was ready for any debate on the issue in Parliament.

The Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, said the Minister was told that the opposition was to the bifurcation of the railway zones. The Trinamool Congress, which was party to the unanimous resolution passed by the West Bengal Assembly against the bifurcation, was not part of the delegation.

However, the suspended Trinamool MP, Ajit Panja, did make an appearance.

Answering queries, the West Bengal Transport Minister, Subhash Chakraborty, who led the delegation, said that all parties from the State wanted the June 14 notification, bifurcating the zone, to be kept in abeyance and an experts committee appointed to review the proposal for new zones. He said the Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution last month demanding that "this ill-conceived proposal of reorganisation of the railway should not be implemented and the status quo of Eastern Railway zone preserved''.

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