The Tribune: ludhiana: Saturday, June 02, 2018.
Be it famous
food joints or a small food carts, it requires a licence or registration under
the Food Safety Act to operate. Surprisingly, food joints and carts can be seen
in every nook and corner of the industrial city and are considered the lifeline
of people living away from their homes. But there are only 1,380 licence
holders and 1,994 registrations under the Food Safety Act. The number is
trivial as compared to the number of food joints and carts running in the city.
The High
Court had shot notices to Principal Secretary, Food Safety Commissioner and
Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, in this regard after a Public Interest Litigation was
filed by city-based RTI activist Rohit Sabharwal. The date of hearing for the
same is July 20.
Sabharwal had
written a complaint to the Principal Secretary Health in 2016 in this regard,
but he failed to evince any reply, after which he filed an RTI with the Health
Department. He sought a few queries from the department such as total number of
food business operators in the city that have been checked by the competent
authority for ensuring that they were following basic hygiene and those not
following proper hygiene, total number of food operators that were issued
licence and registration certificate and total number of food operators who did
not apply for licence and registration.
Any food
joint including a hotel, restaurant or a small eatery, such as a dhaba or
roadside food cart, need to get the licence or registration certificate under
the Food Safety Act. If the turnover of the eatery is more than Rs12 lakh a
year, then it is mandatory to get a licence and if the turnover is less than
Rs12 lakh, then a registration certificate is required.
Through RTI
it came forward that from June 10, 2016 to January 2, 2018, only 1,380 licences
and 1,994 registration certificates have been issued. It was further revealed
that approximately 8,000 food business operators were supposed to get the
licence while 25,000 were yet to get registrations done.
In addition
to this, it was also revealed that the hygiene part of the food operators was
checked only when the department visits to collect the food samples, while no
other data was available in this regard.
RTI activist
Sabharwal said it had been witnessed that major food business operators in the
city were running their business without obtaining any registration
certificates or licences.
“Neither the
state government nor the authorities concerned are bothered in keeping a check
on such food business operators to get themselves registered. Even the hygiene
and safety part is not being taken seriously by the department,” he said.
Civil Surgeon
Dr Parwinder Pal Singh Sidhu confirmed that he did receive the notice from the
High Court.
Licence,
registration mandatory
Any food
joint including a hotel, restaurant or a small eatery, such as a dhaba or
roadside food cart, need to get a licence or a registration certificate under
the Food Safety Act. If the turnover of the eatery is more than Rs 12 lakh a
year, then it is mandatory to get a licence and if the turnover is less than Rs
12 lakh, then a registration certificate is required.
What RTI
reveals
- Only 1,380 licences and 1,994 registration certificates have been issuedfrom June 10, 2016, to January 2, 2018
- Approximately 33,000 food operators function without licence (8,000 approximately) and registration (25,000)
- Food operators’ hygiene checked only when the department officials visits to collect food samples, while no other data was available in this regard