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"It is surprising that the West Bengal ministers cannot find any development work undertaken by the Railways in the state," Banerjee said in reply to criticism by state Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya yesterday that new trains were being run by painting old coaches.
The Left Front government, she said, applied "divide and rule" policy in north Bengal by supporting agitations by various regional outfits in the area for its own political interest, specially ahead of the elections.
"This time too Left Front is out to play the Darjeeling card to divide the people of the hills and the plains to return to power....Trinamool Congress will resist the move and keep the plain and the hills united," she told a gathering at the SRP complex here, after flagging off three long distance trains from New Jalpaiguri.
Banerjee also reiterated her pre-poll claim to "convert north Bengal to Switzerland" if her party comes to power after the Assembly polls scheduled for later in the year.
The trains which were inaugurated today were the weekly New Jalpaiguri to Amritsar, New Jalpaiguri to Chennai Central and New Jalpaiguri to Darbhanga.
The frequency of the trains would be increased in future when more coaches were available, she said.
The minister said work to run railway bus between Siliguri-Aluabari in North Dinajpur district and Siliguri-Bagdorga was almost complete and the target date to run them was March 31.
Laying of the 58-km railway track between New Jalpaiguri and Jogighopa was scheduled to be completed by the same date, she said.
Earlier, Banerjee had flagged off New Coochbehar-Malda town DMU train and laid the foundation stone of Railway electronics signal component factory at Coochbehar.
