Finding insects in the food served by Indian Railways have become less unusual. In the latest embarrassment for national carrier, a passenger found a bug in the Pakoda served by pantry staff of Bihar Sampark Kranti Express.
Mohammad Azad Ali was travelling on August 2 in S-9 coach of Darbhanga-New Delhi train which he boarded in Chhapra along with his family. What made the experience more horrible that he found the bug in the Pakods while feeding it to his four year old son.
“I could have easily missed the bug inside the pakoda, which had been served by a pantry car vendor in an impeccably clean packet. After feeding a few morsels to my four-year-old son, the insect suddenly became visible,” Ali was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
When he approached the pantry car, the staff profusely apologised.However, one of the passengers took a snap of the Pakoda and sent it to Railway ministry on Twitter.
Expectedly, the ministry flung into action and directed the officials concerned to “look into the matter urgently”.
At subsequent stations, officials visited him with queries over the issue
A doctor was also sent to conduct medical examination of Ali’s son at Lucknow.
Passengers in Ali’s compartment were so horrified that none of them ate anything from the pantry car after the episode. Many, who already had the ‘pakodas’, developed vomiting tendencies.
Barely ten days ago, a passenger travelling in Purva Express found the reptile covered with rice after taking a few bites from the vegetarian biryani he had ordered, much to his disgust.
In March, Some passengers of the New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express demonstrated at Asansol station over the “poor quality” of food allegedly served to them for dinner last night.
The passengers of two coaches alleged that the food served to them at Kanpur was stale and many of them had vomited through the night after having it.
The comptroller and auditor general of India slammed the railways for serving food that was found to be contaminated and expired. In a report tabled in Parliament, the CAG said the food served was unfit for human consumption and that fungal growth, rats and cockroaches were found in the pantry cars of even premier trains.
