GHMC hygiene raids just to ‘make money’

Despite many violations, not a single prosecution.

A view of the kitchen at one of the hotels which was raided by GHMC officials. It was found violating several food safety standards.

Hyderabad: Eating out is extremely popular in the city, but is the food being served at restaurants and hotels worth your hard-earned money? Turns out that many restaurants and hotels are serving food that’s not up to the mark.

The worst is that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is going slack on offenders and is often sparing them. The Food Standard and Safety Act 2006 has three sections pertaining to adulteration, misbranding and serving stale food. Violations of these sections are punishable with seven years in jail.But despite finding that hotel managements are serving stale food, there has not been a single prosecution.

The only action that’s taken is temporary shutting of establishments and fines. Three hotels were shut after it was found that the managements had been serving food that had been stored for a week.The Government of India enacted the new Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, which came into force in August 2011 with notification of rules.

Secretary of Forum for Good Governance M. Padmanabha Reddy said, “Adulteration and sub-standard food is a serious concern. Even the high court took up the issue, but the GHMC instead of prosecuting the owners or proprietors of restaurants is letting them off with meagre fines. The GHMC officials made inspections and booked cases; but once the dust settled, things are back to normal usual. Sub-standard food claims lives of customers. Despite the fact that the FSS Act allows serious action, the GHMC is acting soft. Are raids an act to increase the corporation’s revenues?”

On Saturday, officials inspected the Your Friend Bawarchi Hotel near Madhapur police station and seized the hotel for unhygienic conditions, for using unstamped meat, storing meat and cooked items in the freezer and using plastic below 40 microns. The officials also inspected Green Bawarchi at Srinagar Colony and imposed a penalty of Rs10,000 for not using stamped meat.