Calcutta, Dec. 8: South Eastern Railway general manager R.R. Bhandari today drew flak for contradicting chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee during his speech at the inauguration of the Mourigram flyover yesterday.

Bhandari had got up to provide Bhattacharjee the ?correct? statistics, only to be told by a visibly upset chief minister that he would explain the context to him in English later.

Today, Bhattacharjee spoke about Bhandari?s inexperience in these matters. ?His move was not because of arrogance. I was talking about the amount released by railways, while he was talking about railway allocation in the project. This was probably his first public meeting,? he said.

Bhandari refused comment, but in a statement issued by the railway said it had provided Rs 2.15 crore from its share of Rs 3.77 crore for the project. The balance was adjusted against dues for road overbridges at Mecheda and Padampur. He added he had respect for the chief minister and only wanted to appraise him of the ?actual position?.

PWD minister Amar Chowdhury said his department had received only Rs 1.32 crore from the railway. ?The railways should bear 75 per cent cost of these projects and pay the share in advance,? he said, adding that it was unbecoming of Bhandari to contradict the chief minister in public.