Piyush Goyal, Railway Minister this week halted the methodical custom followed by railway catering of seeking extra tip from customers and overcharging the food practice to be stopped within 48 hours.

Accordingly, notice has been forwarded to all the zonal units of Railway across the country, making secure that the immediate effects are been observed for the same.

Antecedently, many initiatives and approaches were practiced to stop overcharging system by catering staff, DEADLINE is the first ever strict action ever established.

After Goyal’s warning and the ministry’s directive, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has immediately forwarded the letter notice to all its catering contractors and advised them about the ultimatum.

VIOLATION WILL INVITE HEAVY PENALTY, as reported by Indian Express.

From Monday, Railway’s catering inspectors under strict surveillance will check whether practices are deployed or not. Monitoring on social media platform will be executed to have a checklist on complaints lodged by the passengers either for asking tip by waiters or for overcharging the food stocks.

Asking for TIPS was a legacy carry forward from Rajdhani Express culture which was again practiced from Raj era, where for satisfactory services, waiters were acknowledged with tips. However, with rolling time, lower staff started taking entire TIPS SCENES to next level especially in trains where prices of food products are built into fares as part of the deal.

 

 

To stimulate warning of not to tip passengers, many trains have stickers posted on their rail trains, but despite notice, pantry staffs appear with trays for tips at the end of journey invariably. In the year 2015 – 16, a picture of pantry staff asking for a tip was presented in front of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu by a Union Minister traveling on a Rajdhani Express.

Last year, an internal note was published by rail minister to stop overcharging on food items in trains because it was the most chunk reason out of all complaints lodged against railway facilities. Basically, passengers unaware about the actual charges are fooled by private catering controllers with overcharging methods. In its latest audit, the Comptroller and Auditor General have indicated that overcharging had become central to the financial model of most private catering contractors in the Railways.