Northeast Frontier Railway Provides At Least 48,000 Free Meals to Needy amid Lockdown

Guwahati, April 12, 2020:

The Northeast Frontier Railway has provided meals to at least 48000 needy people in various areas where it operates.

The meals are being provided to members of the poorer sections of the society who lack the means to cope with the lockdown situation, the release issued by NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Subhanan Chanda stated.

As part of its mission to help the needy people, Indian Railways provided nearly 11,000 free meals till Saturday and other agencies provided about 38,000 free meals to the needy people in the NFR area.

The Railway Police Force distributed the free meals with strict adherence to social distancing. On Saturday, IRCTC in NFR areas provided 1,295 meals to the needy people, which were distributed by RPF in Katihar, Rangia and Lumding divisions.

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Several other organizations also provided free meals to more than 2,750 persons at places like New Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, Samsi, Manihari, Alipurduar, New Coochbehar, New Bongaigaon, Azara, Changsari, Kamakhya, Guwahati, New Guwahati, Silchar, New Tinsukia and Dibrugarh station areas on Saturday.

The Indian Railways, overall, provided more than 12,30,000 free meals to the needy persons residing nearby railway areas at this crucial period of nationwide lockdown. In addition to this, the NFR has also been initiating in-house production of masks and hand sanitizers, the release from stated.

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On March 28, the Indian Railways had started providing bulk cooked food on paper plates for lunch and food packets for dinner through the base kitchens of Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which is the catering arm of the Indian Railways network.

The IRCTC's base kitchens have been made nodal points for the distribution of free food to the poor and underprivileged children, coolies, migrant labourers, stranded persons and everyone who comes in search of food.

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The IRCTC release stated that more than 10.2 lakh cooked meal plates have been distributed till April 10 through IRCTC base kitchens. These base kitchens are located across various zones such as Northern, Western, Eastern, Southern and South Central.

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Earlier, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had made an appeal to the Railway personnel to widen the outreach of their efforts in providing food and other assistance to the needy people.

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