Piyush Goyal carries out ‘Operation Thirst’ with over 1,371 people arrested in crackdown against spurious water sold in Indian trains

In his bid to ensure hygiene and food safety for the passengers, railways minister Piyush Goyal has launched a major crackdown against spurious drinking water being sold on Indian trains. In this regard, more than 1,371 people have reportedly been arrested across 300 places. It is through these people that unpurified drinking water was making its way in Indian railways’ coaches. 

Under ‘Operation Thirst’, as many as 1371 people have been arrested and 69,294 bottles have been seized by the Railway Protection Force in an all-India crackdown on unauthorised Packaged Drinking Water.

Piyush Goyal had stated on Wednesday, “More than 800 persons, including manager of 4 pantry cars, were arrested and 48,860 bottles were recovered. Action was taken on the complaint of passengers.” The numbers have gone up further as per an ANI report.

The railway has been taking massive strides in order to curb adulterated food and water, to ensure the safety and convenience of the passengers. In furtherance to this, Indian Railways has reportedly started printing barcodes on food packets, along with other details such as the name of the kitchen and date of packaging. Moreover, CCTV camera has also been installed in 38 base kitchens to monitor the food preparation process.

Last year, in order to curb the menace of over pricing, the railway had also made bills or receipts on food mandatory, and had even cancelled the license of two vendors who had been over charging the passengers. Piyush Goyal had also instructed private caterers to ensure that food items should be taken from the base kitchen only.

Under Piyush Goyal, the Railways have worked hard to improve the food and beverage quality available in Indian trains. His initiatives have yielded results and the quality of the overall experience has improved as well.

Despite the concern of safety and hygiene, the issue of spurious water had been prevalent for quite some time and had become part and parcel of Indian Railways services. None of the trains, apart from Duronto and Rajdhani, provide drinking water for free and customers need to procure their own water. Thus, many passengers end up purchasing water from railway stations or from vendors selling water in the train. Making use of this situation, there are many vendors, who sell spurious water which is unsafe for drinking. At times, they also fraudulently imitate the stickers and bottle designs of well known bottled-water brands, thus misleading buyers and also leading to copyright and trademark issues.

This latest crackdown indicates that Indian Railways is committed to provide clean and hygienic food and beverage to passengers. Passenger safety is of utmost priority and provision of safe drinking water tops the list. Now that Railways minister Piyush Goyal has taken this initiative to punish such fraudulent sellers, the crackdown is surely going to serve as a deterrent to all those vendors who plan on selling spurious water.