Chai fans, beware! Hyderabad vendor fined Rs 1 lakh for using train toilet water to prepare tea and coffee

A vending contractor has been slapped with a fine of Rs one lakh by the Railways after a video surfaced suggesting that water from a train toilet was being used to prepare tea and coffee, the South Central Railway (SCR) here said today.

In the video in circulation in social media in the past few days, a vendor was seen coming out of a train toilet with tea and coffee cans, conveying that water was 'mixed' in the cans inside the toilet, it said.

The incident had occurred in December last year onboard Chennai Central-Hyderabad Charminar Express at Secunderabad railway station here, a release said days after the video surfaced and went viral.

"An inquiry was conducted, and on the basis of it stringent action has been taken up against the Train Side Vending contractor for the section between Secunderabad and Kazipet, P Sivaprasad, with whom the identified vendor in the video was employed.

"A penalty of Rs 1 lakh has been levied on the licensee, through the IRCTC, the contracting agency," SCR Chief Public Relations Officer M Umashankar Kumar said in the release.

Two other persons seen in the video were unauthorised hawkers, he said.

The Commercial Department of the SCR has been carrying out extensive drives against unauthorised hawking at Secunderabad railway station in the last few months, during which all such hawkers, including the two involved in the incident, had been removed, Kumar said.

A strict vigil was continuously being kept at various levels to ensure that no such incidents recur in the SCR Zone, the official added.