Railway authorities hunt for missing caterer
Railway authorities are searching for the contract caterer allegedly responsible for the devastating fire on the Yal Devi train last week. He is said to be in hiding since the incident.
The fire burned down the dinning carriage of the train and caused extensive damage to adjoining compartments.
“The whole of the damage caused to the train in relation to this incident is estimated at Rs.25 million,” General Manager Railways (GMR), P.P.Wijesekera said..
According to Wijesekera he has appointed a committee comprising of four officers to inquire into the incident.
“We have already prohibited taking gas cylinders inside the trains so there will be some difficulty for travellers to obtain hot meals. They will now be serving cooked meals brought from outside,” he added.
He said that they had handed over the case officially to the Government Analysts to give a comprehensive report.
“We are also ascertaining whether this is some sort of sabotage because of the speculative news reports published following the fire,” said Wijesekera.
Commenting over the same matter Convener of the Organisation for Protection of the Properties and the Rights of Railway Employees, Sumathipala Manawadu alleged that the contract for the running of the Yaldevi dining carriage had been given to the relevant contractor in February this year without retaining any security deposit.
“There have been so many financial irregularities in the tender and the contractor had been given the dining carriage on a sub lease and he had even been permitted to display advertisements in the carriage in violation of regulations,” stated Manawadu.
Manawadu also charged that the specific contractor had not paid his monthly rental from the beginning which amounts to about Rs.1.6 million.
By Sarashi Samarasinghe,
Source: The Nation
