Gill wins Rally of Arunachal; Mangalureans Dean Mascarenhas, Ashwin Naik finish second, third

Kochi, Jan 22: Rail passengers from Kerala are a happy lot as the state’s traditional food items such as appam and eggcurry, puttu and kadala curry have found their way back to the revised menu of the Railways in the wake of protests over reports that they were replaced by north indian delicacies.

The popular Kerala dishes were reinstated to the list following social media backlash over the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s reported decision to replace the favorite cuisine of Malayalis from its menu with north Indian dishes such as Kachori and Chole Bhature.

Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, who had shot off a letter to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal raising the issue of alleged discrimination against Keralites, got an assurance from the IRCTC officials that popular items, including snacks such as unniyappam and sukhiyan will be served through its outlets in the state.

Eden said the IRCTC officials who visited him at his home on Wednesday morning have presented him with the list of delicacies to be served by its local vendors in Kerala. In his letter to the minister, the MP had stated that dishes which are very important to Malayalis for breakfast such as appam, egg curry, porotta, dosa, steam cake (puttu) were excluded along with snacks such as banana fry (pazham pori), kozhukkatta, unniyappam, neyyappam and sukhiyan.  He had also raised the issue of hike in price of food items.

According to him, price of meals has been increased from RS 35 to 70 and that ofsnacks such as vada from Rs 8 to 15.  While the price of vada has not been reduced, the fare of snack meal like parotta, chappathi, idiyappam, appam and puttu with kadala curry or egg curry will be served at Rs 50.  According to IRCTC, a passenger will have to shell out Rs 20 for unniyappam/sukhiyan/neyyappam, 2 numbers each.  Informing Goyal of the changes in menu, he said Malayalis are discriminated in trains and railway refreshment rooms by the food which is the right of every passenger.

He had sought urgent intervention of the Minister and speedy action in the matter.

Dammam: President of Indian Social Forum, Eastern Province Mr.Wasim Rabbani urged immediate intervention of Indian government to help Non Residential Indians who are in trouble due to corona pandemic in Saudi Arabia.

He said in a press rease that expatriate Indians are in concern  as number of corona infected people and  deaths are increasing in danger level.

Hea said, "the Saudi health minister's statement a few days ago indicates that the situation in Saudi needs to be taken more seriously with precautionary methods. There are concerns among expatriates because the number of people infected with the coronavirus and the number of deaths reported in various provinces are increasing at an alarming rate."

"Saudi Government and Health Ministry are taking excellent precautionary measures, however, in the coming days expect to see the number of cases to increase in Saudi Arabia. The Indian government needs to take diplomatic and immediate intervention to ensure the treatment of Indian expatriates considering the number of effected people increasing", He said.

He also urged that the Embassy and the Government of India should ensure qaurantiane faculty for Indian expatriates and arrange special low cost flights to bring back expatriates who would like to return home country.

" Government of India and Indian embassy need to intervene immediately to ensure that the quarantine system is in place for Indian expatriates as the facilities in the rooms where the residents are staying together are very limited. There should also be a mechanism to organize low-cost flight services for expatriates who are ready to go home. The government system should also be able to accommodate the expatriates in special quarantine areas in hometown as soon they arrive in India", he urged.