From: Initiative India <initiativeindia@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 3:53 PM
Subject: [initiative-india] Railway Catering Policy, 2010: Small Caterers demand livelihood security
To:
New Delhi 27th July, 2010
All India Railway Small Caterers Associations
New Delhi, Ghaziabad, Muzzafarpur, Mumbai, Manmad, Jaipur, Secunderabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Guwahati
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Welcome the Ministry's taking over of catering services from IRCTC
ð Betrayal of existing stall holders, not protected from open tendering
The Hon'ble Minister of Railways Ms. Mamata Bannerjee, who after knowing the facts regarding the issues relating to the Railway catering services has rightly taken corrective measures to review & revise the Catering Policy, 2005 which she had announced on the floor of the Parliament during her budget speech & in the white paper furnished therein. We welcome such a taking over of catering from the IRCTC.
Ms. Mamata Bannerjee had categorically stated in the Parliament that she would revert back most of the catering departments / units to the railways which would help in saving the railways from embarrassment & criticism caused due to un-satisfactory services and quality provided by IRCTC for which the railways had to bare the blame. The Minister has taken bold steps in the right direction by taking over all the major and/or minor units wherein the menu is prefixed & the tariff is restricted by the Railways which would once again help the Ministry to serve 90% of the common travelling passengers.
We also welcome the license fees formulae as stated in the new Catering Policy, as against the irrational and exorbitant GDP formula applied previously. We suggest that at least 30% of the committee of sales assessment & the committee for license fee fixation should include at last 30% representatives of the catering licensees.
At the same time existing small stall holders/ licensees are disturbed as no corrective measures have been taken with respect to the promise given by the Minister in respect to "NO EVICTION" of existing small licensees, as also to curtail monopolization & cartelization. The fate of about 30,000 and more families still remains sealed. As of now, there have already been evictions under the Catering Policy, 2005, with maximum number of evictions in the South Central Zone taking place after 1st November, 2009.
Certain clarifications are to be sought out and at the same time certain amendments should be made to safeguard the livelihood of forcibly evicted licensees & to re-install the units if such victimized licensees specially the reserved category who have been protected by the catering policies & the Hon'ble Supreme Court.
The ceiling limits mentioned in the Revised Catering Policy on holding of catering units are not completely acceptable, as the same still does not serve the objective of no de-monopolization. It can be seen that some bureaucrats, against the will of the Minister are trying to still favor big players in the disguise of high professional caterers & high ceiling limits etc (10 units per zone i.e. 160 across the country). This stance is certainly not encouraging for achieving de-monopolization & will only increase crude privatization as seen in cases of the Auto-Vending Machines (AVMs) etc.
We express our deep regret over the fact that the new Catering Policy 2010 has kept the Tendering system for the General Category (not reserved) existing licensees still in force. Our entire problem started with the decision of introducing tendering systems for small catering licensees. The tendering systems introduced the highest bidder to get the contracts. The small scale units were introduced in railways as passengers' amenity. With highest bidding system the quality, quantity & service was highly compromised as the menu, rates, quantity was controlled by the railways in order to provide affordable & best quality food to the passengers / commuters. On the other hand, the bidders were only interested in recovering the bidding amount, which was many times highly exaggerated.
The revised catering policy 2010 does not cover the "NO EVICTION" policy for small catering units (except the reserved category that have repeatedly been assured by the Minister on the floor of Parliament & in our personal discussions. In fact, the General category licensees include many reserved category members, but are not identified. In her Budget Speech, the Minister had stated that there would be "NO EVICTION" within the Railways as a whole, including the existing catering licensees & the people residing in the slums near railway tracks. This has apparently failed, as the "NO EVICTION" promise is not yet reflected in the Revised Catering Policy, 2010.
The new Catering Policy, 2010 has not considered other stalls falling in the category of miscellaneous stalls. These stalls are also victimized by the railways under the tendering systems & evictions are being carried out by the railway authorities. We suggest that these units also be protected & covered by the catering policy & no evictions / tenders are carried out for such units as they provide market extended avenues or the small entrepreneurs and self-employed poor, such as toy-makers.
The Policy indicates a new trend to be set in, favouring 'professionals' as a 'strategic partners' and refers to the need to 'eliminate small time operators'. This is the crux of the issue which we strongly oppose and seriously feel that at least food catering to the lakhs of common commuters, that too in a labour intensive public sector undertaking such as the Railways must be left to the small vendors and small stall-trolley-khomcha wallahs instead of the large investors and corporate. Let the dream of 'world class stations' not come up at the further cost of and harm to the decades-old caterers while Mc Donalds, Priya Gold, Pepsi Colas, Nestle and Haldirams (to include Reliance in the future) have already sought a place at the Railway Stations.
The responsibility of Mamata Bannerjee leading the struggle against 'eviction', who has declared 'No eviction' and 'No monopolization as the focus of the Catering Policy and the Railways is to ensure that these principles and objectives are reflected trough further amendment in the Catering Policy, 2010. Let this happen at the earliest, through a decisive dialogue with the representatives of the association of small caterers across the country, who are already united, who have a support of larger and older Railway Trade Unions too. If not, the struggle for livelihood will continue and spread to all Railway Stations, seeking justice.
Medha Patkar Ravinder Gupta Mahboob Alam Lari
Edul Morena Girish Sharma
Contact Nos: 09423965153, 9013432010, 9350219661
Akhil Bharatiya Railway Khan-Pan Licensees Welfare Association
National Federation of Railway Catering and Vending Licensees
Indian Railway Caterers Association
In Solidarity: National Alliance of People's Movements
Delhi Solidarity Group
National Alliance of People's Movements; National Office: Room No. 29-30, 1st floor, 'A' Wing, Haji Habib Bldg, Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (E), Mumbai - 400 014;
Ph: 022-24150529
E-mail: napmindia@gmail.com
Delhi Contact : 09818905316
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Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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