PAC pulls up Railways over lack of drinking water, basic amenities

Public Accounts Committee chairperson KC Venugopal said the panel is examining serious lapses by the Railways in passenger amenities like drinking water and seating, giving officials one month to address the discrepancies found during an audit.

Public Accounts Committee chairperson KC Venugopal on Thursday said that the panel is examining “serious lapses by Railways” relating to passenger amenities that were found during the audit and noted that a meeting will be called again with Railway Ministry officials after a month to see if the shortcoming related to drinking water had been addressed. Venugopal, who chaired the PAC meeting, said later that the auditors observed “serious discrepancies” on the part of Railways relating to facilities such as drinking water, seating arrangements, fans and platform roof. He said Railways had assured a decade back that drinking water would be provided everywhere, “but hundreds of stations” do not have this basic facility.

'Serious Discrepancies' Noted in Audit

"Today's meeting was one of the most important subjects which concerns the common railway passengers of this country: basic amenities provided to the passengers of the country. Auditors observed serious discrepancies on the part of Railways - in drinking water, seating arrangements, fans, platform roof…basic amenities. This is not the first report. This type of three reports had been given by Audit, and the PAC examined it too. Ten years ago, they assured that drinking water will be provided everywhere. Now also hundreds of stations are lacking drinking water,” Venugopal said.

One-Month Deadline for Railways

“Serious lapses by Railway have been found out during audit which we are examining. Today, we said very clearly that within one month this discrepancy should be addressed. After one month, we will again call a meeting with railway officials and we will discuss this," he said.

Venugopal, a Congress MP, said facilities also include ease of ticket availability and ATM counters. “Basic passenger amenities. For example, for Divyangjans, there are no toilet facilities…smaller and bigger stations, not only stations, trains also,” he said.

PAC Meeting Details and Future Conference

Representatives of the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) gave oral evidence to the committee on the subject ‘Passenger amenities and sanitation at non-suburban railway stations in Indian Railways’ based on C&AG Report No. 31 of 2026.

Finalising the theme of the Conference of Chairpersons of the PAC of Parliament of India and State/UT Legislatures was also on the agenda of the meeting. Venugopal said the theme will be finalised soon and the conference will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on November 3 and 4.

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