INDORE: The famous ' kalakand ' sweets of Kalakund have lost its authenticity. The original flavour has been contaminated by low quality ‘mawa or khoa’ – one of the main ingredients, brought from Mhow at cheaper rates.Next time when you visit Kalakund railway station, there is no guarantee that you will be getting pure form of this famous sweet. The reason – shrinking profit margin of pushcart vendors because of increase in licence fee by railways.At the time when railways are in process of developing Kalakund station as a heritage property, local vendors, who were engaged in sale of kalakand there, are struggling to run their business. Many of them have already stopped the business after facing losses.Locals as well as passengers have also started complaining about the deteriorating quality of the famous sweet, which used to sell like hot cakes at the railway station on Mhow-Khandwa railway track. “The quality of kalakand has deteriorated in the past one year. It has no taste of mawa, but only sugar,” complained Mahadev, a local of the area, who regularly travels between Mhow and Kalakund.Local vendors also admitted about deteriorating quality of this famous sweet and complained about facing difficulty in running their business. “The railways have increased the annual licence fee for us by nearly three times. We are not allowed to increase the rate,” complained GR Jagtap, a local of the area, who used to sell kalakand at the station.The vendors said that the annual licence fee for them has been increased from Rs13000 to Rs33000. Also there is a cap of Rs280 on maximum price for Kalakand.“It costs us Rs300 a kilogram of kalakand if we prepare mawa. While it is available in Mhow market for Rs260 a kilogram,” they explained.Gopal Yadav, a pushcart vendor who is operating a pushcart at the station for over four decades, said that their daily earning has gone done because of increase in the licence fee. “We earlier used to earn up to Rs500 a day, but now it has gone down to Rs200-300,” he said, adding that increased licence fee is another burden for us making it difficult to run this business.The number of pushcart vendors have also gone down with increase in licence fee by the railways. Around four to five vendors who used to sell kalakand at the station have stopped their business.Divisional railway manager of Ratlam RN Sunkar said that they were not aware about this issue with the vendors. “The matter would be taken up for discussion with higher authorities to decrease the licence fee,” he said.

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