By IANS,
New Delhi : A parliamentary panel has expressed concern over the quality of food and drinking water in trains and at stations and has suggested several steps to address the issue.
The parliamentary standing committee on railways, in its report submitted Monday, asked the railways to carry out surprise inspections to check sale of unlabelled water bottles, and also suggested putting in place a scientific quality control mechanism to regulate quality of food sold at stations and inside trains.
The panel recalled several instances during study visits when it found use of normal tap water stored in tanks, supply of water bottles without labels of their manufacturing and expiry dates and even unsealed water bottles.
The panel has said that use of RO system to purify drinking water be made mandatory at all the railway stations so passengers can get clean drinking water.
It has also asked the national transporter to address each complaint in a time-bound manner and has said defaulting contractors should be made to pay heavy penalties and there should be a provision to blacklist them.
It further asked the railways to expedite the design modules of mega and medium base kitchens at stations to supply packaged food to passengers.