A passenger who found a dead lizard in the vegetable biryani he had ordered on the Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express a few days ago, says he has developed mouth ulcers and had trouble urinating a day after he ate a part of the contaminated dish.
Allahabad High Court advocate Santosh Kumar Singh said he had eaten three or four spoonfuls of the biryani while travelling on the train before he spotted the dead lizard in it.
“I felt nauseated. My co-passenger quickly took pictures and posted them on Twitter,” Singh told PTI.
Responding to the tweets, the Railways today terminated the contract of caterers RK Associates for the Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express.
“In view of the Railway's zero tolerance policy towards poor quality and overcharging of food, the railway administration has terminated the contract,” spokesperson AK Saxena said.
‘They Didn’t Give Me any First Aid’
Singh, who was travelling from Deoghar to Allahabad, said he started feeling unwell soon after he had eaten the biryani. The passenger also alleged that the railway officials ignored his complaint and that they even delayed giving him proper medicines. “I was not given any medication for about four hours”, he said. However, DRM Kumar said they conducted a basic check-up and gave him medicines as soon as possible.
He underwent a health check-up in Patna and Buxar in Bihar, and at Mughalsarai in UP, where senior rail officers were also present, officials said.
RK Associates has been catering for Indian Rail for several years now and is among the biggest private food vendors in the Railways. It was given the catering contract for Poorva Express on 15 May 2014, for five years.
Senior rail officials said the caterer told the Railways the passenger's biryani packet did not have a lizard in it, but a piece of a leftover fish. His contract was terminated with immediate effect.
The caterer had been fined Rs 10 lakh last year and Rs 7.5 lakh this year, the ministry said in a Tweet. It was fined for serving substandard food.
This incident came only a few days after a Comptroller and Auditor General report had mentioned that food served on Indian trains were of an unsatisfactory standard.
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