Food looting leaves rly

Passengers looting food and water as well as the low turnout of buyers have dented the business of over 100,000 food stall owners across railway stations in the country. They have approached the ministry of railways for an extension of force majeure invoked on their licence fees till normal services resume.

Passengers of Shramik specials had raided stalls in various stations across the country, including Kanpur, Jabalpur, Jhansi and New Delhi, besides some stations in the South.

The railways had asked owners to open the stalls in a notification dated May 21. However, many employees of these stalls were on leave and lesser number of trains made business unviable.

As many as 3,840 trains carrying 5.2 million people have been operated during May 1-28. Non-operation of these stalls would create further problems since a new category of special trains will start from Monday.

“Vendors having medical fitness have migrated to their home states. Getting medical fitness for staff takes 15 days. At this stage, it is not feasible to hire new people. In addition, only a few trains are being operated, leading to no sales at our stalls,” said Ravinder Gupta, president, Akhil Bhartiya Railway Khan-pan Licensees Welfare Association.

Gupta wants a waiver on the licence fee till trains restart normal operations, which is unlikely till June 30. According to the association, there are over 100,000 stalls across the country, employing over 600,000 people. The association has already written to the railways seeking relief in this regard.

“The railways or states are unable to provide food on time to migrants travelling on Shramik trains. That is why they are putting the burden on us,” said a South-india-based stall owner, who has over three dozen stalls across various states.

According to him, passengers are looting stalls because of less availability of food. The national transporter operated around 3,274 Shramik specials till May 25, carrying over 4.4 million passengers. It was only after May 21 that some stalls opened.

“We are seeking force majeure to be invoked on the licence fee. We can pay it only after normal operations resume. Nowadays, there is hardly any train and it will be unviable for us to open stalls 24x7,” said A Ramesh of JS Enterprises, which runs over 125 catering stalls across the country.