New Delhi, Feb 9: If you are unsatisfied with the catering service of Indian Railways or if the the bed rolls provided to you for the journey are unclean, all that you have to do is to reach out to the Indian Railway with your complaint.

An All India helpline number 138 is made operational for lodging complaints and providing suggestions pertaining to food and catering services. Other than the helpline there is Centralized Catering Service Monitoring Cell (CSMC) operational for prompt redressal of passenger grievances and real time assistance related to catering.

Passengers can also register their complaints on the Twitter handle @ IRCATERING which  has been made operational for complaints and suggestions pertaining to catering services.

Minister of State for Railways, Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha said that a policy of zero tolerance towards poor quality of food and bedding is being strictly enforced by Indian Railways.

In current financial year, 12 catering contracts have been terminated for complaints or other contractual deficiencies. In case of unsatisfactory work or passenger complaint regarding bed roll, suitable penalty is imposed on the contractor as per contract conditions. Regular inspections are done at various levels to monitor the quality of bedding and catering services.

The minister told the house that the  following steps have been taken for provision of better meals to passengers :

New Catering Policy has been issued in February, 2017, wherein inter-alia, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has been mandated to create a distinction primarily between food preparation and food distribution.
IRCTC is to set up new kitchens and upgrade existing ones.
Optional Catering service has been introduced as a pilot project for 180 days from August, 2017 on 32 Rajdhani /Shatabdi/Duranto trains under the management of IRCTC.
Introduction of station based E-Catering for widening the options of food choice.
Pilot for introduction of pre-cooked food in the range of options available to passengers.