GUWAHATI: Don’t need pay for your food taken on board a train or vendors on railway stations if the catering vendors engaged by the Indian Railway fail to give you a bill against the cost of food taken by you. It is especially true for the N F Railway.
The Commercial department of Rangiya Division has taken a major initiative to spread the Indian Railway’s drive for ensuring the issue of bill by catering vendors to consumers in trains and railway stations. A campaign by the name of “If no bill is issued, then your food is free” had been launched all over NFR by the commercial department and Rangiya division of NFR has given special thrust to this campaign in its jurisdiction. Through this campaign, passengers are made aware of their right for bill against any payment. All the major catering outlets in stations over the Division have been covered in this campaign.
A surprise check was also undertaken on train number 14055 Brahmaputra Mail which was passing through the Division to ensure that bills had been issued to the passengers in lieu of amount paid. The checking team detected 7 cases of non issuance of bill by pantry car vendors amounting to Rs 880/-. Manager of the pantry car was made to refund Rs 880/- to all those 7 passengers on the spot. More such checks will be carried out in the next week on other trains.
The campaign also has a visibility component. T-shirts with motto “No bill, No payment, No Tips ” for creating passenger awareness for their right to a bill while making any payments at Refreshment Rooms, Food Plazas and various stalls at Railway Stations, have been distributed to catering stalk vendors at Rangiya.
Along with the message, the web address of “Rail Madad” is also given, so that, passengers can log on to “Rail Madad” for complaint related to overcharging or non-issue of receipt.
It is to be mentioned that, NFR is fixing metal plates in all its coaches asking passengers to insist on bills. Severe penalty is also being levied on vendors who are not issuing bills to the passengers.