The Bengaluru division of the South Western Railway (SWR) has distributed grocery kits to the licensed porters at the Bengaluru Railway Station. Nearly 200 porters were benefitted from the service by the railway division.
2.26 lakh meals distributed to workers
Earlier the Bengaluru division had distributed 2.26 lakh meals to the poor, daily wage earners and migrant workers during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
Since the announcement of the nation-wide lockdown, all railway services for passenger trains have been cancelled. This has majorly affected the licensed luggage porters and contractual house-keeping staff across the railway stations in the country.
Only the freight train services were allowed to service during the lockdown.
The grocery packets were distributed to almost 200 licensed porters and other staff in the Bengaluru Railway station. In addition to this, groceries and other essential things were also distributed to the migrant labourers too.
The SWR's mission to provide hot cooked food to the poor, daily wage earners and migrant workers was a joint venture of Bengaluru, Mysuru and Hubbali Divisions in Karnataka. The food was prepared in the base kitchens of IRCTC with the help of Railway Protection Force, Departments staffs and some NGOs.
Bengaluru division wins applause
According to the reports, the Bengaluru Division of South Western Railway has taken the lead in providing food to the needy migrant workers by serving 1, 63,000 meals of which 54,000 meals were prepared by IRCTC itself.
Although the passenger trains are not servicing in the country, the officials under IRCTC working for essential services are reported on duty, maintain all the precautionary measures to prevent the coronavirus spread.
The packed meals were widely distributed to the migrant workers across the major railway stations in the state viz. Bengaluru, Yeshvantpur, Bangaluru Cantt, Baiyappanahalli, Whitefield, Dharmapuri, Mandya, Tumkur, Krishanarajapuram, Yalhanka and Bangarpet stations.
