The New Indian Express ·
KMC suspends licences of 40 restaurants, eateries over food safety violations
KOLKATA: In a massive crackdown, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has suspended the licences of 40 restaurants and eateries, including several major food chains, in the city since Monday for alleged violations of food safety norms.
The KMC’s food safety wing had suspended the licences of 31 restaurants and eateries till Monday night. On Tuesday, the civic body suspended another nine in different parts of the city, according to sources.
The civic body has been conducting on-the-spot inspection drives at restaurants and eateries in different parts of the city as part of an operation to ensure compliance with regulations.
Among the well-known names that faced the crackdown by the KMC’s health department were the 94-year-old Nizam’s restaurant, popular biryani joint Shimla Biryani on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, an outlet of Karim’s on Ripon Street, an Arsalan outlet in the Nagerbazar area, Don Giovanni’s, Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick, Sri Hari and others.
KMC inspection teams have also inspected food courts at various shopping malls across the city and adjoining areas under the civic body’s jurisdiction.
KMC Commissioner-cum-Administrator Smita Pandey told reporters on Tuesday that hygiene was the main focus of the inspections at restaurants and eateries.
“The experience during inspections was an eye-opener to all. We had to serve show-cause notices to 89 establishments under Section 38 of the Food Safety and Standards Act to 112 establishments, and suspension notices to 40,” Pandey said at a news conference at the KMC headquarters in Esplanade on Tuesday evening.
“Mostly it was about hygiene. What was alarming was the condition of the sweet shops. The conditions there should be hygienic. They were not. Durga Puja is around the corner. We hope they will perform better and we will get better service,” Pandey said.
“There is no provision for cancelling licences under the municipal Act. We have suspended licences for two weeks so far. The suspended restaurants and eateries will have to give clarifications to notices served to them and ensure compliance report in connection with food safety measures to the civic body by this stipulated time,” she said.
Sources requesting anonymity said the kitchens in most of these outlets were found to be in “unhygienic” condition.
During on-the-spot visits, food samples collected from some of the eateries allegedly revealed the presence of colours unsuitable for consumption in biryanis, stale food, fungus in raw food, and storage areas crawling with insects and rats, sources said. In many places, ingredients, including spices, were also found to have been used past the expiry dates listed on the packets.
A joint team from the state health department at Swasthya Bhaban in Salt Lake and the KMC had raided around 162 premises, including restaurants, eateries, food courts and sweet shops.