Indian Railways (IR) can rightly claim to be a gigantic behemoth but with little control on its "arms and limbs". If statistics can tell a story IR has a fantastic national foot print connecting various regions in the country, costing the citizen practically nothing, its fares being very low compared to other modes of transport. Whether IR measures up to the expectation of the citizen is another matter and as is usual with all government controlled bodies, IR is a highly bureaucratized agency with very little autonomy to decide any thing on its own and naturally this is reflected in all its services. Food catering service to millions of travelers in thousands of trains every day is no exception with no one happy with the quality and cost of food served both inside the trains as well as at most of the Railway Stations where many trains halt for brief duration. The separate agency set up for this service , viz Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) seems to have failed the traveling public which necessitated the parent body IR to take over the function. Here is a take on this comic circus being indulged by the IR to throw dust over the eyes of the hapless customers.
Seeking to allay apprehensions of members over the new catering policy of the railways, Government today said it aimed at improving quality of food and services to passengers. The government decided to implement the new policy last year in view of a spate of complaints regarding quality of food and services under the earlier arrangement with the IRCTC, Minister of State for Railways Bharat Singh Solanki said in the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour. "The reason behind bringing this new policy was that people should get quality food at reasonable price. The decision was taken because there was a public perception that the corporation was charging more money and better food could be made available at that cost," he said. The minister said the vendors are engaged by licencees on their own terms and conditions and Railways do not have any contractual relations with the vendors appointed by the licencees, both erstwhile and present. "Even though the licencee may change, the vendors are always working with the new licencees....as per the Catering Policy 2010, all existing operationalised catering licences for minor units have been permitted renewal, subject to satisfactory performance and payment of all dues, which will take care of interests of such vendors," he added.
It is interesting to note that it was left to a junior minister of GOI to speak about catering in the Rajya Sabha reflecting the low priority accorded to food service in the mind of the Railway Minister of cabinet rank! In what way IR can perform the service better than IRCTC under the new policy can be imagined knowing well the mindset of "babudom" that runs the ministry from top to bottom. In a scam scorched country like India will any "babu" take a serious decision on reforms for fear of being hauled up for corruption. Demolishing some thing is easy but building a more efficient system is fraught with umpteen number of hurdles in the form of red tapism and rigid set of rules of archaeological vintage! This blogger had suggested several times in the past that catering in Railways must be entrusted to well reputed food industry players who can provide good quality foods besides taking the responsibility of safety to the traveling public. A government service can never be expected to be of class as proved by the flopping of several hotels under the tourism ministry during the last few years and junking of many food processing units being run by the States. When will the GOI learn the bitter truth that "running a business is none of the business" of any government? Why not take a lesson from past failures and think differently for the sake of millions of people who are forced to travel by trains under the IR due to many reasons to make the travel at least enjoyable gastronomically!
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