The ‘Janata’ meal, introduced by former railway minister Mamata Banerjee in February 2010, has gone astray at the Ranchi railway station.
The vendors at the station have bunged ‘Janata’ meal in their respective stalls which leads to cash in for the private food stalls. A box of 'Janata' meal contains seven puris, potato vegetable curry and pickle at Rs15, which comes in handy boxes, with the impression of India Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation limited (IRCTC) on it.
“There is unavailability of Janata Meal at the railway station as there is no demand by the travellers. The puris get dry soon and the food is spoiled so customers do not prefer to buy it. But if any customer wants to buy Janata meal then we ask the private food stall canteens to prepare which we pack and supply it to the customers,” said a food stall vendor Manoj.
First of all there is lack of awareness among the passengers about the ‘Janata’ meal so they prefer to eat in the private canteens at Ranchi Railway Station. Secondly, there is unavailability of Janata meal at the railway station.
“I eat whatever is available in the station’s canteen; I have never seen the packet of Janata Meal in any of the IRCTC vendor’s food stall,” said Babloo Singh who was waiting for his train since morning at the Ranchi Railway Station.
“The private vendors are discouraging Janata meal and they are promoting their own food deliberately. If demanded then they cook it by themselves and sell it to the customers by naming it as Janata meal,” pointed out a railway official.
“Hygiene as well as freshness of the food is the real issue for the passengers and we take proper care of it. We cannot keep the packed food for long as it gets spoiled soon and the customers do not prefer buying it.
We keep the curry prepared and fry the puris immediately on demand of the customer and the same is being sold at an economical rate of Rs15 as Janata Meal to the customers,” said the owner of Bhojnalay, a canteen at Ranchi Railway Station.
“We cook ‘Chola Batura’ and sell the same at a price of Rs20, the customers prefer eating it by paying Rs5 more rather than demanding for Janta meal. So we do not keep Janata meal but we can provide the same to the customers on demand,” said the owner of another food canteen.
“In the morning I had a meal from the Bhojnalay canteen, which contained 7 puris, aloo curry and pickle. I liked the quality of the food and it was reasonable too.