Following complaints of commuters on the Pune-Mumbai Deccan Queen (DQ) about poor quality of food being served, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), claims that no evidence has been presented as yet.
Specfically, a complaint filed on August 21 concerned an incident that allegedly took place on July 19, 2019, where worms were found in an omelette served with tomato sauce and black pepper.
The commuter was able to file the plaint only after he took the help of the Railway Pravasi Sangh, a travellers’ collective of activists.
IRCTC, on Thursday, said it is not taking the complaint lightly but believes it a “one- off incident when it comes to Deccan Queen”.
Eight months ago, a commuter approached Harsha Shah, president of the Railway Pravasi Sangh, with a complaint stating “glass bits were found in a cutlet he had ordered on the DQ”.
Harsha Shah says, “IRCTC refuses to acknowledge that the food quality has gone down. When we ask for a complaint book which is to be regularly carried by the ticket checker, there is never one. Also many of the regular commuters who travel daily, have verbally spoken or returned the food back to the caterers on Deccan Queen but there is still no remorse.”
Ashok Gugle has been travelling on the Deccan Queen for 30 years and feels that ever since the pantry and kitchen changed hands, the food served has been of substandard quality.
{{/usCountry}}Ashok Gugle has been travelling on the Deccan Queen for 30 years and feels that ever since the pantry and kitchen changed hands, the food served has been of substandard quality.
{{/usCountry}}“Earlier, food served was of really good taste and quality and if any error occurred, the staff would be courteous and apologise unlike the new contractors,” says Gugle, a businessman whose third generation also travels on Deccan Queen.
Narendra Pipil, PRO IRCTC, says, “We acknowledge that there was a complaint on the Pune-Mumbai Deccan Queen, but there is no evidence with the complaint. We usually are very particular of the service on our premium trains and there are very minimal complaints.”
According to Sunil Mishra, Senior Divisional Commerical Manager, Pune Division, Central Railway, “In my six months of posting, this is the first time I have come across a complaint against food in Deccan Queen. This seems like a routine complaint but we have time to time routine inspections. There are some deficiencies which we are trying to roll out, for there has been a noticeable improvement in IRCTC in terms of billing, packaging, and also making food using good ingredients.”