KOCHI: The Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on Tuesday said that it would reinstate all the earlier food items from Kerala on its menu, two days after its decision to exclude popular Malayali food items triggered widespread protests, especially in the social media.
IRCTC, in a tweet, said due to the demand from passengers and representations received, it has fully authorized its local offices in zones and regions to bring more items as per the "local taste and regional preferences within one week" as snack meals.
IRCTC has also informed that all the food items served earlier will be restored.
Earlier on Monday, Hibi Eden, MP, had written a letter to the Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal and also telephoned MP Mall, the chairman and managing director of IRCTC, to express the protest of the people from Kerala.
"I was assured that all the concerns will be addressed within a week," said Eden.
According to him, the pricing of the items is also absurd.
"It is totally uneconomical. The meals come in a combo. For example, if a passenger orders idli, they will also be paying the price for the vadas that's hoisted upon them whether they like it or not," he said.
He said, "The entire issue arose because, for Indian Railways, South India is limited to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Telangana. For them, Kerala doesn't seem to exist." Their negligent attitude can be seen in all their activities, the latest being the prime one.
The IRCTC order had removed breakfast items like appam. egg curry, porotta, dosa, chappathi, steam cake (puttu) along with snack items like banana fry (pazham pori), baji, ilayada, kozhukatta, unniyappam, neyyappam and sukhiyan.
Soft drinks like lemon juice were also excluded. Changes in combo packages too raised the hackles of the passengers in Kerala.