A passenger on Guwahati-bound Rajdhani train found that the vegetarian dish he ordered contained pieces of bones.
The incident happened last week when Tikam Chand Jain, a frequent traveller, boarded the Rajdhani from Delhi on September 19 and ordered a vegetarian meal the next day. To his horror, 65-year old Jain realised he was chewing bones served in the curry.
He complained to the manager serving food in the coach and later a written complaint was sent to the headquarters, according to a report submitted to Railway Ministry.
Acting on the complaint, the Railways has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Brindavan Food, the caterer in the train.
The complaint has been viewed very seriously and besides the fine, a show cause notice has been served on the caterer, a senior Railway Ministry official said.
The "bones in vegetable curry" incident was preceded by a similar incident on Goa Express where cockroach was found in soup the same week. Satyam Caterer was also fined Rs 1 lakh for the incident, the official said.
In the rail budget, Railways Minister Sadananda Gowda had announced course correction in catering service, and also instructed strict action be taken against erring caterers.
Railways has been flooded with complaints about the pathetic condition of catering services and quality of food.
Despite the complaints and action against caterers, these kinds of incidents have been repeatedly happening.
Recently, IRCTC was fined Rs 1 lakh after a cockroach was found in the food on Kolkata Rajdhani on July 23.
During a special drive by Railways in July, sub-standard food was found in 13 trains and all caterers involved were imposed fine ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
The official said several measures have been taken to improve the food quality.
Serving pre-cooked ready-to-eat food, launching e-catering service, including the facility of ordering food through SMS and booking menu online are being planned to offer passengers multiple choices.
