For dishing out poor fare on trains, caterers being let off with mere warnings

For dishing out poor fare on trains, caterers being let off with mere warnings

Swapnil MishraUpdated: Friday, January 10, 2020, 12:33 AM IST
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Mumbai: The response to a right-to-information query on the action taken by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on 21,465 complaints of bad food served on express trains in the last five years reveals that the corporation has been merely letting off caterers with just a simple warning. This came to light only after the incident on Tuesday when around 40 female passengers on Shatabdi Express were treated for food poisoning after being served stale bread and butter for breakfast. Promptly, the IRCTC had suspended the catering licence of Sunshine Caterers. Surprisingly, it had blacklisted this contractor earlier but they continued to supply food.

Around 1,800 complaints were filed in 2015-16, followed by 1,921 in 2016-17 and this number more than doubled to 4,862 in 2017-2018. In 2018-19, nearly 7,862 complaints were filed, the highest in five years. Until October 2019, the IRCTC had received 5,020 complaints about the dismal quality food.

According to railway officials, ever since 2016, when Railways entrusted the IRCTC with providing catering services on express trains, the number of complaints had increased. Of the 21,465 complaints in five years, 17,444 complaints had been received in the last three years alone, they said. Further, the maximum complaints were from Rajdhani Express passengers - 4,617.

When the IRCTC gets complaints from passengers, it is expected to take action but this rarely happens. In 6,847 cases, the contractor has been let off with only warnings, while 4,371 times the contractor has been asked to improve services. Only in nine cases have the contractor's services been terminated; however, none of these terminations have happened under the IRCTC's watch.

An IRCTC official said they would look into this matter and action would be taken against the caterers providing stale food on express trains. "When we get complaints, action is taken, but we cannot terminate their licence immediately, as we need to examine thoroughly where they went wrong," he said.

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