With the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pulling up the Indian Railways for "serving food to its passengers unfit for consumption by humans", the national transporter on Friday said that it has already identified the problem areas which were so entrenched that unless the policy was not changed things would have gone worse.
The CAG report, tabled in the Parliament on Friday, blamed the national transporter for mismanagement of catering services, poor quality food and monopolisation that have led to compromise in quality.
The Railways said that it realised two years ago that unless the quality of food at source is not controlled, onboard quality would not change. "The Ministry early this year announced unbundling of food production and food disbursement through a revamped New Catering Policy," said Ved Prakash, Director Information and Publicity, Ministry of Railways.
"Catering has been a top priority for Indian Railways. We were cognizant of the issues. Hence, we have been pursuing a series of policy measures since Suresh Prabhu took over as Railway Minister. In his first Budget speech too, Prabhu had announced the launch of e-catering services on train, which would allow passengers to order food from the brands of their choice including pizzas or burgers on train. This service is not even available in many developed railways of the world," Prakash mentioned.
Under the New Catering Policy, sources said, ultra modern mega kitchens with partnership of private sector would be established with the use of most hygienic and latest equipments for food preparation. Further, a Zero Tolerance policy towards catering has been implemented, they pointed out adding in the last one year, Railways terminated seven contracts, blacklisted 16 contractors, took action against 21 officers and imposed fines in excess of Rs 4.5 crore.