Title - 30 taken ill after having food on train

Kozhikode: Five passengers, including women and children, who were taken seriously ill after consuming food from the Ernakulam- bound Marusagar Express from Ajmer on Saturday night, were discharged from hospitals in Kasaragod on Sunday.The passengers in two sleeper coaches and one third AC coach, mostly from Malappuram district, were hospitalized after they developed symptoms of food poisoning.The passengers showed signs of uneasiness on reaching Kankanady near Mangalore Junction.After they were given first aid at Mangalore, a doctor accompanied them to Kasaragod. The railways had arranged for ambulances to shift the sick passengers to hospitals. As many as 30 other passengers who fell ill after eating the food served from the pantry car were given first aid at the station itself, said K.Premsadan, TrafficCircle Inspector.On a complaint filed by one of the passengers, A.Shahul Hameed from Alappuzha, a case was registered at the Kasaragod Railway Police station. Sub Inspector K.Sukumaran is investigating the case.

Railways has not enough   health inspectors

Kochi: There’s a severe shortage of Health Inspectors under the Railway Medical Department who are to conduct regular checks on the quality of food served in trains. For instance, under the Trivandrum division itself, there are only 33 Health Inspectors who have to deal with over 130 express trains daily.

“Inspecting the quality of food on trains comes as an additional duty for Heath Inspectors. Apart from this job, they have to ensure that railway stations and railway quarters are kept neat. So, only random checks are possible”, sources said.

Only 25 per cent of the food is actually prepared in pantry cars while the rest is purchased from IRCTC outlets at stations. The food becomes stale if the train is late or leftover food is served to the pantry cars.“The fact is that earlier, railway eateries were well received by the travelling public.

But ever since the IRCTC was formed, the focus was on profit and quality suffered. What needs to be done at this point is that the railways should directly run or control the operation of pantry cars and other food outlets in stations. Currently, only the food served in Rajdhani Express is of top quality”, they said.

“The Marusagar incident now shows that passengers’ complaints of bad quality food being served on long-distance trains is genuine.

A complete change in catering is necessary and the railways should directly control the process”,  said All Kerala Rail Users Association president Paul K.J.Manvettom.