Rly Minister holds official meetings in Parliament corridor

New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) The corridors of Indian
Parliament Wednesday witnessed an unusual scene--a Union
Cabinet Minister disposing off official business sitting on a
bench in the corridor following a controversy over allotment
of room to him.
In the absence of a room in the Parliament House, the
new Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi went about holding
official meetings with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu
Prasad, who once held his portfolio, and top officials in the
corridor.
"It is an insult to the Railway Ministry," a bitter
Trivedi said.
The issue was finally resolved following interventions
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, West Bengal Chief Minister
and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee as well as
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal.
Trivedi was allotted room number 6 which has been the
office of the Railway Minister for several years.
The matter was raised by Minister of State Sudip
Bandopadhyay with the prime minister who instructed Bansal to
resolve the matter. Bansal also spoke to Mamata on phone to
inform her that the matter has been resolved.
Bandopadhyaya told PTI he spoke to the prime minister
and the matter has now been resolved. Bansal said the matter
has been sorted out and Trivedi will now get the same
room, which was occupied by Mamata earlier.
The controversy arose Tuesday when the room in
question--the seat of erstwhile Railway ministers Mamata,
Lalu, Nitish Kumar and C K Jaffer Sharief--was alloted to
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.
But later it was learnt that it has been re-alloted to
Trivedi Tuesday itself. However, when Trivedi arrived for
the scheduled meeting with Prasad Wednesday afternoon, he saw
his nameplate missing. So he sat on a bench in the corridor
and held meetings with Prasad and Chairman Railway Board (CRB)
Vinay Mittal.
However, Trivedi clarified that the meetings with Lalu
and CRB chief in the corridor were not in protest. "If my name
plate has been removed then how can I enter the room. So it
was (sitting on the bench) not in protest.
"I am not fond of any particular room. It is not for
the minister's comfort but to facilitate Members of
Parliament(MPs) meeting in the Parliament House. It is an
insult to the Railway Ministry which has 14 lakh employees."
Trivedi said that he had yesterday drawn the attention
of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Bansal to the
problem.