In order to provide relief to needy, Indian Railways is providing bulk cooked food through base kitchens of IRCTC across the country with the help of security personnel, commercial departments of zones, State Governments and NGOs.
Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal has also directed the officials of Indian Railways to reach out to needy people with food and other assistance to the best of their human abilities and resources.
The Minister said that Railways should widen the outreach of their efforts and go beyond the proximities of railways stations to deeper areas in consultation with district authorities and NGOs etc. The direction came in a meeting that attended by Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi, members of the Railway board, GMs and heads of public sectors units from across the nation, who linked up through video conferencing.
Complimenting the Railways for extraordinary work being done so far in the fight against Corona and adopting innovative solutions like conversion of passenger coaches as isolation coaches, Goyal expressed confidence that all the zones will meet the challenge of making these coaches fully ready and would be equipped at the earliest. It may be noted that work on conversion of first lot of 5,000 coaches has already started in a phased manner
Railway Board officials informed the Minister that following Prime Minister’s call to the nation, a contribution of Rs 151 crore was being made to PM CARE fund. Chairman Railway Board Vinod Kumar Yadav informed that employees of Indian Railways and Rail PSUs took a decision to forego one day’s salary and contribute to the PM CARE Fund. Many Railway PSUs are also planning to contribute to the fund to bolster the national efforts.
Railway organisations like IRCTC and Rapid Action Force (RPF) are already engaged in distribution of free meals to the needy persons. It has distributed 102,937 food packets till March 28 from its kitchens in New Delhi, Bangalore, Hubli, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad, Bhusaval, Howrah, Patna, Gaya, Ranchi, Katihar, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar, Balasore, Vijaywada, Khurda, Kaadpali, Tiruchirapalli, Dhanbad, Guwahati and Samastipur spread over various zones such as Northern, Western, Eastern, Southern and South Central.
While reviewing the running of special Parcel Trains by Railways to supply important items, Goyal asked the officials to make the service available on more routes so that goods like medicines, essential equipments, edibles can be supplied all over the country in a quick time
The Minister said that for the first time in history, not a single passenger lost their life in last twelve months in a railway accident. Now we are working to ensure that COVID 19 has least impact on India.