chemical tea on indian trains

http://in.news.yahoo.com/indiabroadcast/20080301/r_t_ibn_nl_general/tnl-60231-3a4f8c1.html

 

Sat, Mar 1 01:25 PM

Patna: People often complain the tea vendors sell at the Aurangabad railway station tastes funny. Their suspicion is correct-the tea is not made of milk but a chemical called Fevicry.

Surendra Kumar, a vendor at the Aurangabad railway station, readily admits that the tea he sells to train passengers contains Fevicryl. "I can make 20 litres of milk out of the chemical I buy for Rs 15. The milk lasts for at least six days," he says.

The economics is simple: Surendra sells tea worth Rs 200 a day and if he uses chemical instead of milk he can make a cool profit of up to Rs 150. Kumar justifies this dangerous fraud.

"We have no choice but to use chemicals. It costs Rs 100 to buy 5 litres of milk. Then we have to bribe the railway police and other authorities. If we end up spending Rs 200 every day on these expenses how will we support our families," says Kumar.

Hundreds of people drink tea at the Aurangabad railway station every day but perhaps they don't know what they are sipping is really a concoction of chemicals. "It doesn't really taste like tea but it looks like tea, so I am drinking it," said one passenger.