White Paper makes Lalu see red

New Delhi, July 7: Rattled by his successor's decision to bring out a White Paper on Railways' performance during his five-year-term at the helm, former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today sought a parliamentary probe to remove 'confusion' created by those who had given a 'wrong advice' to Ms Mamata Banerjee.

''Set up a parliamentary committee in seven days.... let it call up Reserve Bank of India, Railway Board and financial experts'' to find out the performance, Mr Lalu Prasad thundered in Lok Sabha while participating in the debate on Railways budget for 2009-10.

Dissatisfied by a meek clarification by Ms Banerjee on the issue of the White Paper in her budget speech, he said, ''I do not doubt your intention (but) people to my right (pointing towards BJP benches) want to create confusion in the public mind by raising doubts on the 'golden period of railways'.'' ''Lalu's period will be known as golden period in the history of Indian Railways notwithstanding the abuse like 'Chara Ghotala' (fodder scam)'', Mr Prasad said.

He was reacting to the allegations made by Mr Ananth Kumar of BJP who, while initiating the debate, had cast doubts on credibility of Rs 90,000 crore surplus generated by the Railways under Mr Prasad.

Suspecting some sleight of hand(Dal mein kuch kala hai) in it, he had alleged that like 'Chara Ghotala' (fodder scam) 'rail me bhi ghotala ho sakta hai'.

UNI