India, Trinidad and Tobago PMs served lunch by unlicensed firm

It was a feast fit for kings. And two Prime Ministers - Manmohan Singh and Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago - were among the guests who enjoyed the hearty meal during the just concluded Pravasi Bharatiya conference in Jaipur.
Now it has emerged that the catering firm - Sky Feast - has no food licence, a mandatory requirement under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
Sky Feast claims to be an in-flight catering firm based in Jaipur. Sources said Air India had invited tenders to serve breakfast and lunch to the two PMs and it was awarded to Sky Feast. But the fact remains that the firm deposited the bank draft of Rs.2,000 for the licence along with the application to the health department only on January 9 - a day after Singh inaugurated the conference, where Persad-Bissessar was the chief guest.
Interestingly, the state health department had deputed two food inspectors to check the food supplied for the two PMs. It now appears that they cleared the food without bothering to check whether the firm had the clearance to supply it.
The firm is in the catering business since 2008 and its clients include three airlines, including budget carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo. Neither Sky Feast bothered to get the mandatory food licence, nor did the state agency authorised to issue such a certificate and monitor the food of hotels and caterers verify it. Even Air India, which awarded the contract to Sky Feast, failed to check whether the firm had a food licence.
Jaipur's chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr Yatindra Singh - responsible for monitoring the activities of hotels and caterers under the food safety law - has confirmed that Sky Feast didn't have the mandatory licence to run its catering services and had applied for it only a few days ago.
But he contended that the state government, by a circular issued on August 5 last year, had transferred powers to regulate "manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import" of food articles from the municipal bodies to the health department under the provisions of the Act.
But it came into effect from only from January 1 this year. Prior to this, such bodies were regulated under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, by the municipal bodies, he said.
A spokesperson of the station office of Air India admitted that food for the PMs was supplied by Sky Feast. But he expressed ignorance about the firm not having the mandatory licence. "The tendering was done by our Delhibased headquarters," he added.
Gopal Singh, the owner of Sky Feast, said he had tried to obtain a licence from the Jaipur Municipal Corporation as early as 2008, but repeated follow-ups with the civic body and the health department didn't yield any response.
He has lodged a complaint with the CMHO against a food inspector who had demanded a bribe of Rs.10,000 for letting him cater without a licence. "Yes, we had supplied breakfast and lunch for the PM and many others," he added.
The CMHO, confirming Sky Feast's complaint, said action would be taken against the firm after a thorough probe.