The food safety department and corporation of Thiruvananthapuram in its recent inspections of restaurants and food outlets in the city has observed that a number of them were operating without a license. The raids by the body came in the wake of death of a person caused due to food poisoning. The department had earlier closed down a number of food outlets for serving stale food.
"Last year, the corporation had conducted a similar raid at the Salwa Cafe, the outlet where a food poisoning incident that led to the death of one person was reported, and found that it was functioning without licence.But the hotel continued operations. This was a serious lapse on the part of the corporation and only after a tragedy did they wake up to act," said an official who was part of the corporation raid team. "However, the raids could not meet their full objective because the news of the raids was leaked from corporation itself. Several hotel kitchens were cleaned just before we arrived, while some owners closed their joints and left," the official said in a report by TOI. When this was brought to the attention of health minister V S Sivakumar, he said that an inquiry into the matter will be immediately conducted by the government. Meanwhile, the food safety department continued raids in the city on Wednesday and closed down three hotels near the General Hospital junction, one near the Medical College junction and one at Chalakuzhi road, after finding the presence of stale food. The owners were given improvement notices, which if not followed, would lead to permanent closure of these outlets. However, the corporation did not conduct any raids on Wednesday. The Federation of Residents Associations Thiruvananthapuram (FRAT) demanded that action councils comprising councillors, officials of the health and police departments and representatives of the residents' associations, be formed at every ward. "Authorities should take action to ensure streamlining of food prices as per the grade of the hotels and the display of price charts prominently in the outlets. Regular checks should be made by the action council to ensure quality. In case discrepancies are found, the licences should be cancelled immediately. Only such an action would ensure safe food at hotels and we will provide all support to such initiatives," said FRAT president Vennikkulam George Varghese.
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