For all his preoccupation with the railway budget on Friday, Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad took pains to ensure that a lonely, ailing baby goat would soon be reunited with its mother.
The kid was presented to Prasad last week when he visited Tiruchendur, a pilgrim town 600 km from Chennai, to flag off a new, bi- weekly train from there to Delhi.
The railway minister took the kid back with him. But being only a few weeks old, the kid, deprived of its mother’s milk, promptly fell ill.
Prasad then directed railway officials to locate the goat’s mother. She was traced to a village in Tuticorin district on Thursday.
“This evening, she left Madurai by train to join her baby,” a source close to the development revealed.
Railway officials confirmed that Prasad had been gifted a kid, but refused to comment on whether its mother had been dispatched to join it.