Dutta and Brahma: War of words

Guwahati, June 26: Smarting from allegations by his successor about the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC)’s financial health, the man acknowledged as the architect of the PSU’s revival today said new transport minister Chandan Brahma hadn’t done his homework.

Anjan Dutta specifically refuted Brahma’s claim that the ASTC had incurred losses of nearly Rs 1 crore every month under him.

Brahma’s claims are shocking in the light of the fact that Dutta has been credited with transforming the loss-making ASTC into a profit-making corporation. ASTC employees have also hailed the reforms ushered in by Dutta.

The former minister, who lost the Amguri seat to Pradip Hazarika of the AGP, said Brahma had been misled into giving such “wrong facts and figures”. He said the minister was also “not thorough with facts”.

“The strange and baffling statement by him (Brahma) was made in isolation without taking all prevailing factors into consideration. Maybe he was not adequately briefed on the subject,” he told the media.

Dutta, whose defeat in the Assembly elections was unexpected, did not rule out a conspiracy to defame him. “I am not sure who is actually behind this. I am trying to find out and the moment I will get to know, I will definitely tell the media. I am not a person to sit idle,” he said.

The former transport minister cited statistics to explain how the ASTC became a profit-making corporation during his term. He said his successor, who is from the Bodoland People’s Progressive Front (Hagrama), was probably unaware that the financial liabilities of the corporation declined from Rs 155 crore to Rs 77 crore during his tenure.

“This was possible only because the ASTC started making profits. Had the corporation not been earning, how could we have cleared the accumulated liabilities?” he asked.