A partially dismantled IRCTC kiosk at Tatanagar railway station. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, May 19: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), with the help of Government Railway Police (GRP) today, sealed four food kiosks at the Tatanagar station.

Following an order from IRCTC, the officials of the catering department at Tatanagar station started closing the food kiosks on platform 1 forcibly from 9am today.

The staff posted at the food kiosks opposed the move but the railway police overpowered them.

Group general manager of IRCTC Vivek Srivastava told The Telegraph over phone from Calcutta that the food kiosks were closed as they had information that some unauthorised persons were running the stalls.

During the drive, 10 persons were arrested by the railway police on allegations of running the stalls in an unauthorised manner.

“We would soon issue tenders to outsource the food kiosks to private parties. IRCTC has no intention of closing the kiosks. We were forced to take such a step as the kiosks were being run in an unauthorised manner,” he said.

The IRCTC office in Calcutta had issued an order to close six stalls out of the existing 13.

The closure process was initiated last month during which two stalls were closed down.

Meanwhile, the staff (helpers) working in the IRCTC food kiosks alleged that they have not been paid their commission for the past two years.

“We have been running the show at Tatanagar for the past two years. The IRCTC has not paid our commiss- ion and now it is closing the food kiosks without paying us,” said a staff member.

Officials of IRCTC revealed that R. Mishra, a senior executive of catering services, Tatanagar, was removed recently on charges of dereliction of duty. A. Manjhi replaced him as a senior executive.

Two FMCG companies — Nestlé and Natural B — have recently submitted quotations to start a modernised catering service at the Tatanagar station.

The move comes in the wake of plans of the IRCTC to revamp catering and pantry services at major stations and passenger trains across the country.