Cockroaches in Shatabdi meal, third incident in 3 months

BHOPAL: Passengers of New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express, on Saturday were in for a shock when they were served with cockroach-laced rice on-board. This is the third incident in three months when Shatabdi passengers complained about poor quality of meals. Earlier, food served on the train had worms or were stale. Passengers of C6 coach found cockroaches in rice served to them onboard on Saturday.The complainants included Pushplata Goel, Madhusudan Singh Chouhan and four others.
"This is atrocious. One expects quality service on Shatabdi. But this is like travelling in a passenger train. There were cockroaches in rice and subzi," said Chouhan, a cop with Govindpura police station.
The catering manager was uncooperative and refused to record complaints, said Chouhan. The manager maintained the insects had crept into the food from the coach.
"We were made to wait for almost an hour before we could register our complaints at Bhopal station," he said. The passengers also complained to the train's superintendent and TTE.
Currently, food is loaded from Gwalior which is under Jhansi division. Railway officials said, the complaint against the catering company has been sent to the Jhansi division of Northern Railways since Shatabdi originates from New Delhi. Also, the complaint has been sent to senior DCM, Bhopal division.
Officials also said a similar complaint was made to Northern Railways last week, but no pest control was done in the coaches.
Despite long-standing demand of base kitchens at Bhopal, Itarsi and Jhansi, Railways is still using caterers who are slipping up on food quality.
On July 17, passengers protested when stale breakfast was served instead of lunch on Bhopal Shatabdi. They complained to the station master and divisional railway manager (DRM) against the caterer R K Associates.
Earlier, worms were found in rice served to a woman passenger, Surbhi Saxena, on May 12.
Railways will increase the fine on bad quality food. Earlier, it was Rs 300-Rs 20,000. Now it will be raised to Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Besides, the vendor can also be blacklisted in case the complaints are of serious nature. The new fine system is likely to be implemented from the new time table in September, railway sources told TOI.