Rat seen roaming Churchgate tea stall; Western Railway issues notice, shuts stall
Western Railway sent a show-cause notice to the contractor and closed the Origin stall at Churchgate after a video of a rat at the counter went viral.
A video of a tea stall at Churchgate railway station in Mumbai has gone viral on social media. The video shows a rat roaming freely on the stall. The stall operates under the name "Origin". The video has caused considerable anger among people.
Mumbai's local trains are a lifeline for millions, and Churchgate station is always crowded. In the rush of daily life, many people skip breakfast at home in the morning and eat food available at the roadside or the station. The question is how safe that food is.
A passenger shot the video on September 26 and posted it on social media. It clearly shows the rat running around where food items are prepared. As soon as the video went viral, Western Railway acted immediately. The same day, railway officials visited the stall and inspected it.
During the inspection, officials found the stall in a very poor state of cleanliness. The vendor working there did not have a medical certificate, so it is not known whether he has any illness, even though he was serving food to people.
Chutney containers were left open without lids. Oil and chutney had spilled all over the platform, leaving the area sticky. The vada batter and cooked items were kept in open plastic bags. Cabbage peels were also lying uncovered. The utensil-washing basin was so dirty that it was hard to look at. Food safety rules had been flouted across the board, and there was no pest control, not even basic cleanliness.
Western Railway has sent a show-cause notice to the contractor, asking for a written reply within two days. The railway has warned that the licence will be cancelled outright if the reply is not satisfactory.
For now, in the interest of passengers' health, the "Origin" stall has been closed since September 26 and temporarily locked.
Millions of people eat at railway stations every day, and they expect food at railway stalls to be safe. But this is not the first such incident. Videos of similar filth at several other stations have surfaced before.
