Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar utilised railway minister Mamata Banerjee's Rail Budget on Friday to fire another salvo at her predecessor Lalu Prasad saying the planned white paper on the present financial status of the railways would 'expose' his arch rival.
Nitish, a former railway minister himself, said the white paper would unravel the truth behind Lalu's claims that Railways earned huge profits successively during his five-year tenure.
"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 has been going hammer and tongs at the Rashtriya Janata Dal strongman's performance as railway minister in the United Progressive Alliance government's first term when he demanded a probe into the alleged jugglery of figures in profits shown between 2004 and 2009.
In another veiled attack on Lalu, Nitish appreciated Banerjee for scaling down targets of Railways and promising only those the implementation of which was possible within a specified time-frame.
"It is a clear departure from Lalu Prasad's budgetary speeches which remained a bundle of promises much beyond the targets possible to be achieved," he said.
Prasad was in a combative mood when he said he was not bothered by the minister's declaration of coming out with a white paper on the organisational, operational and financial situation and performance of Railways in the past five years when he was at the helm.
"This is not an embarrassment (that a white paper is coming out). Let her bring out white paper. I am not bothered," he told reporters in New Delhi.
