New Delhi, March 24:
Getting kudos for the turnaround of railways, Lalu Prasad on Saturday found himself on a sticky wicket on being asked why he could not translate this "success story" in Bihar when his party was in power. Quizzed at a media conclave, 59-year old Prasad, who has been giving lectures to students of top business management institutions on the pragmatic initiatives taken to restore railway's economic health, attributed Bihar's plight during his 15-year rule to the "step-motherly" treatment being then meted out by the Centre. "Bihar is a rich state but always remained poor. The state has never been the actual owner of its resources... We always fought with the centre for Bihar but the promised freight equalisation policy was never implemented," he said. Asked about coalition compulsions, he candidly admitted that such problems always existed with coalition partners seeking to put pressure on the Centre to get their demands met, sometimes threatening to pull out. "Single party rule is far away, not in sight.....Who can forecast the future as to who will become what and when. UPA future is bright and the coalition will last for five years and beyond," he said in reply to a question. On his success story in railways but failure in Bihar, where he and his wife Rabri Devi were in power for long, the RJD chief said the state, rich in resources, was "discriminated" as Gadgil Formula of freight equalisation was never implemented there.
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