Mamata's white paper to expose Lalu: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's promise to bring out a white paper on the present financial status of the Railways would 'expose' her predecessor, Lalu Prasad.

It would unravel the truth behind his claims that the Railways earned huge profits successively during his five-year tenure, Kumar, a former railway minister, told reporters.

"The decline shown in the cash surplus and increase in the operating ratio from 70 to 92.5 per cent proposed for the current fiscal will bring to the light the facts relating to the Railways earning profits," Kumar said.

Kumar had earlier demanded a probe into alleged jugglery of figures in profits shown between 2004 and 2009.

He also appreciated Banerjee for scaling down targets of Railways and promising realistically.

"It is clear departure from Lalu Prasad's budgetary speeches which remained a bundle of promises much beyond the targets possible to be achieved," he said.

Kumar was averse to the continuation of the 'Tatkal' scheme with Banerjee proposing to reduce the period of advance booking of tickets under the scheme from five days to two days.

Kumar also called for early completion of all the pending rail projects in Bihar.