Indian Marxist Leninist Party MP from Arrah, Bihar, Sudama Prasad has written a letter to Railway Standing Committee Chairman CM Ramesh, making a big allegation on the Railways. Sudama Prasad has alleged that the Railways, through its PSU rights and RVNL, has gifted gold coins and silver blocks to the MPs associated with the Standing Committee. Sudama Prasad has sent these gifts back to the Railways.
Sudama Prasad alleged that it is the duty of the Standing Committee MPs to work in favor of the facilities for the railway passengers, but the Railways has given such expensive gifts to influence the MPs so that the MPs do not blame the irregularities in the facilities of the passengers. Do not underline in Parliament.
What is the whole matter
Railway organization RITES had organized a study tour for the MPs of the Parliament Standing Committee (Railways). Being a member of the Standing Committee, Sudama Prasad was also a part of this tour. This tour took place between 31 October and 7 November 2024. This journey took place from Bengaluru, Tirupati to Hyderabad. During this visit, two big railway companies, RITES and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, gave gifts to the committee members. This gift was brought to MP Sudama Prasad's house in two bags. At that time Sudama Prasad did not open it and see it. Later they found that one bag contained a one gram gold coin and the other contained a 100 gram silver block. Sudama Prasad returned this gift to the Railways and expressed his displeasure.
What was said in the letter written to the Chairman of the Standing Committee
MP Sudama Prasad wrote in his letter that there is a trend of giving gifts after any program but these gifts should be in the form of shawls and souvenirs and not in the form of gold and silver coins. This seems to have been given to influence the MPs which is unethical.
Gold coins were made to be distributed among the employees
Chief spokesperson of Railway Ministry told ABP News that this gift was originally made to be given to RITES employees. Last April 25 was the 50th foundation day of RITES. On this occasion, these gold coins were distributed to all the 400 employees of RITES.
Railway's response to MP Sudama Prasad's allegation
The Chief Spokesperson of the Railway Ministry said that whatever work we do, we give a copy of it to the MPs as information and publicity so that the public representatives are aware of our work. Anyway, these coins were also distributed as a symbol in itself. Therefore, it was also given to the MPs of the Standing Committee. The value of a given gold coin is about Rs 5 thousand. Being the Golden Jubilee, gold coins were given to the employees as a memento of this special occasion as part of their contribution. This thing is also mentioned on these coins. The symbol of the new Parliament building is engraved on the silver coin.
