New Delhi, May 3: The Ministry of Railways slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the railway contractor after a video showing water from a train toilet was mixed to prepare tea and coffee went viral on social media, the South-Central Railway (SCR) informed. The video that has been widely circulated on social media shows a vendor coming out of a train toilet with tea and coffee cans.

Reports inform that the incident is said to have been recorded onboard Chennai Central-Hyderabad Charminar Express at Secunderabad railway station in December last year. The video shows that when the vendor is challenged by one of the passengers, he denies any wrongdoing.  The incident is reported to have taken place at Secunderabad(Telangana) station.

The vendors in question, who were unauthorised hawkers, were engaged by platform catering stalls. According to a report by ANI, one of the vendors who was employed by contractor P. Sivaprasad, following an inquiry by Railways authorities, revealed that they were only transferring the leftover beverage in the toilet to sell it in their respective platform stalls.

Claiming that there was no mixing of toilet water in the cans, he further said that they did so in the toilet to avoid public gaze. Meanwhile, the Commercial Department of the South Central Railways termed it a 'wrong practice' while advising the IRCTC to levy a penalty against the Train Side Vending Licensee Sivaprasad. "However, the very fact that the Tea/Coffee cans were seen brought out of the toilet is in itself a wrong practice. Therefore, IRCTC is advised to levy a penalty of Rs. 1, 00, 000/- against the Train Side Vending Licensee, P. Sivaprasad, as this contract is now with IRCTC," said the statement.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2018 12:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).