Inquiry committee says after kids from a tourist group travelling with their own cooks and food, including fish, vomited in the coach, the smell caused uneasiness and nausea in others
The inquiry committee report in the Tejas Express food-poisoning incident, submitted on Sunday, has stated that the passengers who first took ill were from two tourist groups, one from Himachal Pradesh and the other from Kolkata, who had been travelling for the past 16 days with their own food, including fish stock, and that it was after they vomited inside the AC coach, it set off a chain reaction with others becoming uneasy and nauseous from the smell.
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A couple of hospitalised passengers suspected to have fallen ill aboard the Goa-Mumbai Tejas Express after consuming the supposedly contaminated egg breakfast
The report added that the food samples collected from the train for tests were all found fresh and well within their expiry dates, concluding that the quality of food served onboard was found satisfactory and not the cause of the mishap.
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A senior IRCTC official said a committee comprising senior divisional commercial manager and additional chief medical superintendent of Central Railway along with the additional general manager, IRCTC, had been formed to look into the incident.
The committee interacted with the passengers, the AC mechanic, the train conductor and TTEs. "The first case of uneasiness was reported in the Himachal group - two children vomited in the coach itself. The smell of the vomit triggered uneasiness in others, and soon, two other children vomited in the same coach. This further vitiated the air in the AC coach… two more children vomited; this caused uneasiness in their parents," stated the report.
Also read: Tejas Express food-poisoning: Two officials suspended
The statement of the tour manager of the group from Kolkata, Kajal Chakravarti, was taken after the incident. He categorically said there was no problem with the quality of food served onboard.
Also read - Goa-Mumbai Tejas Express food poisoning: Did egg breakfast land 26 in hospital?
He added that for the last 16 days they had travelling to various places in Maharashtra and Goa with their own cooks and food material, including fish (Hilsa) from Kolkata. He even confirmed that he himself had consumed everything served by the waiters onboard twice and found no problem. Six passengers from his group, and 25 in all, were hospitalised at Chiplun. All have been discharged, an official said.
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