New Delhi : Union railway minister Dinesh Trivedi has not resigned, the government clarified in Parliament on Thursday.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told Lok Sabha that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not received any resignation, but only a letter from Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee late Wednesday.

“As soon as a decision is taken, the house will be informed,” he said.

He said: “Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi hasn’t resigned.”

On the issue of the statu of rail budget that was presented on Wednesday, Pranab Mukherjee clearly said: “The rail budget is now the property of the Parliament.”

“Rail Budget is now the property of the House. Each and every member has the right to approve every clause in it,” he said in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Speculation about the resignation of Trivedi, who was in the Lok Sabha, rocked the lower house with Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and other opposition leaders issuing a notice to suspend question hour to discuss the issue.

However, Speaker Meira Kumar disallowed the notice saying there was no rule under which this demand could be met.

Trinamool rules out threat to UPA

Trinamool Congress has ruled out any threat to the UPA government but insisted that Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi should go.

“We are supporting the government totally,” Trinamool Parliamentary Party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday. He was asked whether the government was stable or it faces any threat.

Asked whether Trivedi would remain as Railway Minister, he said, “Trivedi is an individual. Trinamool Congress is of the opinion that he should not remain as Railway Minister unless he withdraws the hike (passenger fares in the railway budget). But this morning the situation has changed (an apparent reference to party leader Mamata Banerjee’s demand to replace Trivedi with Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy,” he said.

Angered by Trivedi’s proposal contained in the Railway Budget on Wednesday, Banerjee had written to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday night seeking his removal and replacement by Roy.

Bandyopadhyay said the party MPs would meet the Prime Minister today and take up the party’s objection to inclusion of NCTC issue in the President’s address.

To a question whether TMC would support amendment to the President’s address on the NCTC issue moved by BJP because its own amendment has been rejected, he said, “We will cross the bridge when we come to it”.