Railway blankets not washed in 6-26 months, finds CAG

NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised the railways over cleanliness and management of linen, and suggested putting in place a mechanism to ensure strict compliance to norms.

In its report tabled in Parliament on Friday, the auditor said the washing and sanitation of linen as well as blankets are not done as per the norms. It revealed that many blankets had been washed after an interval of 6-26 months, whereas according to rule these need to washed after every two months.

The Railway Board also instructs that washing of linen (except blankets) should be done after every use.

“Various zonal railways had provided periodicity of once every fortnight/month/once in two-three months for washing blankets,” said the CAG report.

The CAG has collected data on a number of blankets in use and those washed during the review (2012-2013 to 2015-2016) period in 33 selected depots of coaches.

It was found that in 14 depots, under nine zonal railways, no blankets had been dry-washed in the said period. And except for seven depots under five zonal railways, linens had not been sanitised in the other selected depots, the CAG has said.

During 2015-2016, in respect of 12 coaching depots of eight zonal railways, blankets had been washed after an interval of 6-26 months, the report stated.

These depots included Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Mumbai), Sealdah (Kolkata), Gwalior, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Lucknow, Secunderabad, and Hatia and Tatanagar (in Jharkhand).

Meanwhile, a day after the CAG released a report critical of the food served in stations and trains, the Ministry of Railways said the IRCTC has formed a new catering policy by unbundling the current services on trains.