I will apologise if found guilty: Lalu

Former Railways minister Lalu Prasad on Tuesday urged his successor Mamata Banerjee to prepare a report on his tenure within seven days and added that he was prepared to apologise to the nation if any irregularities were found.

Former Railways minister Lalu Prasad on Tuesday urged his successor Mamata Banerjee to prepare a report on his tenure within seven days and added that he was prepared to apologise to the nation if any irregularities were found.

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"Within seven days, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials, railway officials and planning commission officials should be called and a report should be published on my tenure," Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad said in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on the railway budget.

Banerjee, presenting the railway budget on Friday, had said that she would come out with a white paper on the actual performance of Indian Railways during the past five years as she felt that the targets set by her predecessor, Lalu Prasad, in the interim budget earlier this year were unrealistically high.

Lalu Prasad said if anything wrong comes out in the white paper he would "apologise to the whole nation and parliament. I am not a thief but somebody is trying to make me." His reference was to the opposition leaders.

Lalu Prasad said his tenure as railways minister during 2004-09 would be written in "golden letters" as he "turned around" the mammoth organisation, inviting praise from management experts.

"If railway is bleeding, my body is bleeding. My tenure is an open book."