Request station

If Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel’s worry is that most questions in Parliament on his ministry eventually turn into demands for airports at various constituencies, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s problem is dealing with demands for local railway stations. During her regular meetings with MPs, the largest number of requests that she receives are invariably for train stops in various constituencies. While this is a common request from elected representatives, Banerjee has observed that most requests for making additional stops for Express trains have come from MPs from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar. “Orissa and West Bengal MPs have not made such requests so far,” she says. On Friday, Banerjee even had a heated argument on the issue with Dushyant Singh, a Rajasthan MP and son of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje.