Training with a stipend for rly food vendors

Kochi: How about getting Rs 200 a day to get some tips on cooking?  Faced with the recent barrage of food safety complaints, the railways are wooing vendors to attend its week-long training classes on safe food procedures by providing them stipend.

The classes being held at a three-star hotel in Kovalam since the past one month are open to vendors running railway stalls and pantry cars on a priority basis and for outside parties on availability basis.

“The response for the week-long classes is great as already over 200 vendors attended the programme. Recently, some food poisoning cases in running trains were reported. The training class is part of the vigorous action being taken to control such instances in the future,” a senior railway health official said.

The classes mainly deal with improving the quality of food served, the minimum personal hygiene and that to be followed in stalls and pantry cars besides the best practices to preserve food articles.
Meanwhile, the Thiruvananthapuram division has sought permission of the Railway Board to start more awareness classes among the over 200 staff in 50 pantry cars in trains from the state.

“We plan to allocate more food stalls in the division but there won’t be any compromise in quality. Strict enforcement will be done to raise the standard of foods served as was there in olden days,” DRM Rajesh Agarwal said.