On one hand, the Railway Board is on fast lane to curtail number of general bogies in trains; on the other, it is providing solace to passengers by serving Janata Khana. The Board has directed divisional units across the country to ramp up supply of Janata Khana to passengers of the general coaches. Sumeet Singh, Director of Tourism and Catering Wing, Railway Board, in his order to Zonal bosses, directed them to ensure supply of desired quality meals to the travellers. As per the latest development, the travellers would get good quality meal for Rs 20 per packet. The food packets, as per the directive, would contain 7 pooris (its weight be around 175 gms), dry potato vegetable (150 gms) plus pickle (12 gm).

 

At present, Janata Khana has been available only at ‘Jan Aahar’ outlets. A few private outlets also sale the food stuff. Alternatively, those who can afford, another food packet costing Rs 50 per packet would also be made available. It would contain snacks/combo meals (350 gms) preferably regional cuisine and the same be served in casserole, stated the order. The pack should contain the required accompaniment as detailed previously. Also water pouch (200 ml) should be sold at Rs 3 to the economy class travellers. As per stated policy, the number of general sleeper coaches in all long distance Mail/Express trains has been curtailed from four to two. This has affected ordinary travellers. In this backdrop, the purpose of serving Janata Khana is nothing but a cosmetic measure, said Basant Shukla, Secretary, Bharatiya Yatri Kendra (BYK). On paper, the order looks sumptuous, but in reality, its implementation looks intricate. For, the base kitchens are with IRCTC while the task of ensuring availability of Janata Khana has been catered to by Railway’s divisional units. Similarly, there are very few authorised vendors as licence fees charged by the IRCTC is hefty. Hence, not many are optimistic to venture into the business.

 

It is a big question as to how the divisional units would ensure that travellers in all the long distance Mail/Express trains are provided Janata Khana. Already at Nagpur Railway Station where around 40 pairs of long distance passenger trains criss-cross, there is mismatch in availability and demand for Janata Khana. A plain read of the directive indicates that now railway officials would have to ensure that food packets are available for sale by side of bogies. Means the Commercial Inspector nominated for catering at railway station will have a hectic job at ensuring that within the limited slotted time of stoppage, he is able to cater to large number of travellers.

 

As is well known general bogies are jam-packed. It will be a daunting task if someone from such bogies venture out to get Janata Khana from the outlets on the platforms. Also, the Board, in a bid to maintain punctuality, has reduced stoppage time for Mail/Express train at railway stations to just five minutes. This will result in a frantic scene to lug the Janata Khana. Take example of Nagpur Railway Station having seven platforms. Barring first three on the western end, other platforms have very limited number of food and snacks stalls. It remains to be seen as to how the division officials manage to cater to general sleeper coaches travellers of all the trains.