PANAJI: South Western Railways (SWR) general manager Ajay Kumar Singh on Thursday publicly apologised to Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha for his remark referring to her as Portuguese descent. Apologising to Alina in front of media persons and Cortalim residents, Singh said, “I have already apologised to you on that day itself. Our mother tongue is Hindi and instead of saying ‘the Portuguese’, it became ‘you Portuguese’. I am sorry for that. I was just talking about the people 500 years or earlier. And if she feels I was referring to her, I regret that and I have already withdrawn it on that day itself and now I withdraw it again.” Earlier, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant held a meeting with Alina, Singh, Indian Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav, among others to resolve the issue. Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Alina said, “We discussed the issue. The GM (general manager) has accepted that he was very rude and indecent in the way he spoke to the people who were present at the railway station at Vasco. He has apologised. The Chief Minister has suggested that it is better that a person who cannot control his emotions and does not have good manners should not be allowed in this State again. He will probably look after some other State and somebody else will come in his place.”