AGRA: A day after a Comptroller and Auditor-General ( CAG ) report stated that food served by Indian Railways was not fit for human consumption, documents further revealed that by not following the ceiling limit prescribed for catering licences to be awarded to private contractors, railways promoted "monopolization" of licences by a few firms, compromising the quality of services being provided to passengers.In North Central Railway (NCR), eight contractors were awarded more than the limit of two minor catering units per station. R K Associates got 16 units at Agra Cantt, Chaturvedi and Sons got five units at Agra Cantt, Pranveer Singh got three units at Agra Fort, HD and Sons got 10 units at Mathura Junction , Rajkumar got five units at Mathura Junction, Tirupati Associates got three units at Allahabad, Kanchan Restaurant & Caterers got five units at Allahabad and R D Sharma got 17 units at Gwalior.A similar situation was reported from South Western Railway (SWR), where Relish Caterers was allotted contracts for 10 stalls in Bangalore City station and two stalls in Yeshwantpur station. Further, even after taking over the units from IRCTC by SWR, the same licence-holder continued services and the irregularity was allegedly not rectified.The CAG reported further stated that eight private caterers from various zones were given 330 licences, including R K Associates of Agra who was given 60 catering licences by NCR and IRCTC for providing food services in trains and stations. In total across the country 2,530 units were held by licencees beyond prescribed limits.Gaurav Bansal, chief public relations officer of NCR zone, said, "The CAG report is based on the findings of 2015. Even the Railway was aware of the anomalies and had gradually terminated the contracts."Bansal added, "At present there are only four minor units of R K Associates at Agra Cantt but soon we will bring it under the prescribed limit. All other firmss contracts exceeding the limit have been terminated in NCR zone.""All these licences were given based on the 2010 catering policy which promotes open and highest bidding but with prescribed ceiling. But now a new 2017 catering policy has been introduced, in which there is no ceiling and the bidding is via e-tendering. The railways, under the policy, is gradually handing over catering services to IRCTC, which will be responsible for the quality of food and packaged drinking water," Bansal said.

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