Railway Board seeks zones' inputs on CAG findings on dirty toilets, coach cleanliness
The Indian Railway Board is demanding explanations from its zones following a CAG report that identified significant sanitation failures and financial mismanagement. The report criticized poor toilet cleanliness and questioned the validity of claims regarding the effectiveness of housekeeping schemes.
Why it matters
Public accountability for essential infrastructure services is critical for maintaining standards in large-scale government-run transportation systems.
The Railway Board has sought a detailed response from all the zones to address observations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report highlighting several sanitation lapses, including dirty toilets, manipulation in passenger feedback and lack of financial discipline among others.
A report titled ‘Sanitation in Long Distance Trains in Indian Railways’ for the period from 2018-19 to 2022-23 was tabled in the parliament on August 20, 2025, which made several observations on poor sanitation practices in trains while expressing dissatisfaction with railway’s response on various points.
The CAG sought detailed evidence and statistics from the Railway Board to substantiate several claims made by zonal railways in support of their claim of the effective functioning of Clean Train Station (CTS) and On Board Housekeeping Service (OBHS) scheme among other measures.
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