Lalu photo op behind 2 rly calendars

The East Central Railway (ECR) has come out with two calendars this year. One carries pictures of ECR projects and achievements. The other calendar, too, carries similar photographs as well as photos of Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad holding a flag.

But why two calendars? Senior railway officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had purposely “deleted” Lalu’s photograph, given that Lok Sabha polls are around the corner. “You never know if he’ll return as minister. Publishing a fresh calendar half-way through the year would have been quite odd,” a senior ECR official said.

But all hell broke loose when Lalu came to know that calendars printed by the ECR did not carry his photographs. He lost his cool and gave a piece of his mind to the zonal officials.

Result: The ECR promptly withdrew the first calendar and ordered a new one with the minister’s photograph.

Incidentally, Lalu’s photographs have occupied pride of place in the ECR in each of the previous three years.

ECR officials, however, denied they had been forced to withdraw the first calendar. “We just went for a format change this year and wanted to highlight our achievements through the calendar,” said Girish Bhatnagar, general manager, ECR.

“The second calendar carrying the railway minister’s photograph was published by the contractor who printed last year’s calendar and was inadvertently distributed by the ECR staff,” added a senior ECR official.