NASHIK: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Nashik division, has started conducting spot registrations of hotels and eateries. Any business found unregistered or without a license after January 16, Thursday, will face punitive action, said officials. The spot registration drive started on Saturday.
Joint commissioner (food) of the FDA's Nashik division told TOI, "Our goal is to get all food related businesses across the division registered and licenced. Some of the paan and tea stalls, and food caterers have not responded to our call. We have formed special teams in each district that will visit spots to register business. There will also be units at our district offices in the division where the registration and licencing can be done. After Thursday, the owners of unregistered businesses or those without will face six months in jail and will be fined Rs 5 lakh."
As per the new Food Safety and Standards Act which came into effect from August 5, 2011, a licence is compulsory for business with an annual turnover of over Rs 12 lakh. Business with a turnover less than Rs 12 lakh are required to get a yearly registration for Rs 100 a year, while the annual licence fee is Rs 2,000.
Food business like paan stalls, fruit or vegetable vendors, handcarts with food items being sold, grocery shops, bakeries, food packaging units, caterers, inns, dhabas, tea stalls, onion-potato traders, meat shops have been included under the act from August 5, 2011. Many of these stalls were not registered in the last registration drive.
The FDA's Nashik division oversees five districts - Nashik, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Nandurbar and Jalgaon. Till date, around 35,561 businesses have been registered in Nashik division, including 8,346 in Nashik district, 5,193 in Dhule district (which also Nandurbar district), 7,425 in Jalgaon and 14,597 in Ahmednagar districts. Licenses have been issued to 16,137 businesses, including 7,331 units in Nashik, 2,866 in Dhule, 2,409 in Jalgaon and 3,531 in Ahmednagar districts.
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