A vending contractor has been slapped with a fine of Rs 1 lakh by the Indian Railways after a video suggesting that water from a train toilet was being used to prepare tea and coffee surfaced, the South Central Railway (SCR) said on Wednesday.
In the video that has been in circulation on social media the past few days, a vendor is seen coming out of a train toilet with tea and coffee cans, indicating that the water was ‘mixed’ in the cans inside the toilet.
The video was recorded last December onboard the Chennai Central-Hyderabad Charminar Express at Secunderabad railway station in Hyderabad, a release said days after the video gained traction on social media.
“An inquiry was conducted, and on the basis of it stringent action has been taken up against the Train Side Vending contractor for the section between Secunderabad and Kazipet, P Sivaprasad, with whom the identified vendor in the video was employed.
A penalty of Rs 1 lakh has been levied on the licensee, through the IRCTC, the contracting agency,” SCR chief public relations officer M Umashankar Kumar said in the release.
Two other people, who are unauthorised hawkers, are also seen in the video, he said. The Commercial Department of the SCR has been carrying out extensive drives against unauthorised hawking at Secunderabad railway station in the last few months, during which all hawkers, including the two involved in the incident, were removed, Kumar added.
A strict vigil was continuously being kept at various levels to ensure that no such incidents recur in the SCR Zone, the official said.
