No food license? Get ready to be penalized

JAIPUR: From food vendors plying on city road to big hotels, all could be penalized if they do not have a registration or a food license to operate from Wednesday. All eateries need a license or registration to operate as per the provisions under the Food Safety and Standard Act.

Since the deadline to get a license was February 4, the health department's designated officials have the right to ask food business operators to show their licenses. If they failed to produce it, they could penalize such FBOs, said a senior health department official.

Large number of FBOs applied online for the registration and license and as a result the website stopped functioning for some time.

The health department said the process to apply online will continue further but they can take action against the FBOs that are operating without license or registration. The official said there is no direction for extension of deadline.

For the FBOs that have a turnover of less than Rs12 lakh, registration is mandatory and they can register by paying Rs100 fee, he added. Also, the FBOs with turnover above Rs12 lakh require licenses to operate and the fee ranges from Rs 200-7,500.

However, chief medical health officer Jaipur (I) Dr OP Thankan said a fine of Rs100 per day could be imposed on the FBOs, if they failed to produce licenses or registration when demanded.

Besides, Rajasthan Khadya Padarth Vyapar Sangh (RKPVS) kept wholesale food grain markets like Suraj Pole market in Jaipur protesting against the Food Safety and Standard Act.

RKPVS president Babulal Gupta said in the state only 30,000 food business operators had procured the license and registration. He demanded for the deadline to be extended immediately as the website for applying online stopped functioning many times on Tuesday.

In other parts of the state, the food grain markets remained closed as they demanded that they deal in agriculture products so they should not come under the ambit of FSSA.