Cooking is not permitted on platforms at suburban railway stations and efforts are being made to progressively reduce it at other stations, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
In a written response to questions, the minister said, "It is a continuous endeavour of Indian Railways to ensure adequate provision of good quality and hygienic food items to the travelling passengers at railway stations/platforms through static catering units including stalls and trolleys."
He cited the existing catering policy and said, "There should be no cooking on platforms at suburban stations and for other stations there should be efforts to progressively reduce cooking on stalls and trolleys on the platforms, except for items which could be prepared through electrically operated equipment."
He said all railway zones have been directed to implement it.
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Two Shiv Sena MPs, Krupal Tumane and Gajanan Kirtikar, expressed concern about the availability of freshly cooked food for passengers at stations and asked if the railways has issued instructions for utilisation of LPG at stalls or trolleys at stations for preparation of hot tea/food and if all divisions are implementing the instructions.
They also asked whether the Akhil Bhartiya Railway Khan-Pan Licensees Welfare Association has requested permission for the use of LPG uniformly on trolleys due to absence of any electrical induction setup. The minister said the association's "representations have been examined on merit and action taken accordingly."
