A fine of Rs. 1 lakh has been imposed on a vending contractor by the Indian Railways after a video showing some vendors purportedly filling tea and coffee cans from inside a train toilet surfaced.
The video of the incident that took place in December 2017 in the Charminar Express, at Secunderabad(Telangana) station, shows some vendors coming out of a train toilet with the cans, suggesting that the water was mixed in the cans inside the toilet.
The vendors in question, who were unauthorised hawkers, were engaged by platform catering stalls.
One of the vendors, employed by contractor P. Sivaprasad, following an inquiry by Railways authorities, revealed that they were only transferring the leftover beverage in the toilet to sell it in their respective platform stalls.
Claiming that there was no mixing of toilet water in the cans, he further said that they did so in the toilet to avoid public gaze.
Meanwhile, the Commercial Department of the South Central Railways termed it a 'wrong practice' while advising the IRCTC to levy a penalty against the Train Side Vending Licensee Sivaprasad.
"However, the very fact that the Tea/Coffee cans were seen brought out of the toilet, is in itself a wrong practice. Therefore, IRCTC is advised to levy a penalty of Rs. 1, 00, 000/- against the Train Side Vending Licensee, Shri P. Sivaprasad, as this contract is now with IRCTC," said the statement.
ANI
