Maharastra politicians wanted IRCTC out of Sadan menu for not serving state ... - Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Maharastra Sadan incident in which a Shiv Sena MP was reportedly shown force-feeding a fasting Muslim employee is being seen as a manifestation of attempts by a section of the state politicians to bring in a Maratha contractor by replacing IRCTC, a railway PSU which run the catering service in the state's guest house.

Many politicians were said to be unhappy as the IRCTC-run canteen didn't serve Maharashtrian food in the newly constructed Sadan.

Following the incident, IRCTC suspended its service in the Sadan in protest and also complained to Maharashtra resident commissioner for the MP's action which, it said, had hurt the religious sentiments of the staffer.

TOI has learnt that IRCTC employees were thrashed by politicians earlier as well.

However, the railway top brass has expressed displeasure over the way IRCTC allowed the incident to blow into a major political controversy that has come as a major embarrassment for the BJP-led government.

A top railway official was amazed that the incident involving 11 Shiv Sena MPs was not brought to the notice of senior officials in the ministry.

Hours after Parliament was stalled over the incident, IRCTC constituted a fact- finding team to inquire into the episode and asked it to submit its report in three days.

A senior IRCTC official said the PSU will decide its future course of action after receiving the report from the committee.

At present, IRCTC is providing catering service at Shastri Bhawan, Writers' Building in Kolkata and offices of other ministries including finance and defence.

The PSU, set up for running the railways' catering business, received a big shock after Mamata Banerjee, as the then minister, decided to reclaim the catering business for the railway ministry. Catering accounted for 80% of IRCTC's revenues.

Banerjee's new catering policy of 2010 took away even contractual catering from IRCTC.

This was a big set back for IRCTC which was responsible for providing catering services in about 200 trains that included the elite Rajdhani, Duronto, Shatabdi and all other mail and express trains.

With this move, Rs 200 crore catering business was taken away from IRCTC, forcing the PSU to diversify its operation by extending catering services to government establishments and serving packaged food for private companies.

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