SMC food dept raids hotels, restaurants

SNS | Siliguri: Mayor Asok Bhattacharya held a meeting with the owners of hotels and eateries located under Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) area on Friday and instructed them to maintain food quality.

"We acted on complaints which said poor quality of meat was served in some hotels and restaurants. On Friday, I held a meeting with the hoteliers and restaurateurs and told them that they will have to maintain the quality of the food (meat) served. They were also asked to maintain hygienic conditions," said Asok.

Also, some officials of the civic body visited eateries different eateries of the town and collected samples. "The officers collected samples of meat for lab tests and checked whether the eateries were serving decomposed meats to people," said a source.

Such raids will continue, the SMC officers said.The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Friday warned hotel and restaurant owners about maintaining the standard and quality of food they served. The SMC held a meeting with hotel and restaurant owners here on Friday in the wake of reports that meat from animal carcass was being sold in the state.

Maintaining that no compromises will be made with regard to the quality of food sold in SMC areas, Siliguri mayor Asok Bhattacharya said, “We do not want to hear of any allegation based on the quality of food sold. However, we have not received any complaints so far. We have alerted all small and big eateries and asked them to supply scientifically proven fresh food.”

Asked about food stalls that have come up on encroached land in SMC areas, Mr Bhattacharya said, “Steps will be taken to check the illegally encroached roadsides and the food stalls there. We have sought the Siliguri Metropolitan Police’s (SMP) help for the same.” Meanwhile, an SMC team on Friday raided restaurants and eateries. However, officials said no rotten meat was recovered.

SMC food inspector Ganesh Bhattacharya visited a number of eateries in Hakimpara and Burdwan Road to check the quality of food being sold there. Mr Bhattacharya maintained that the raids will continue as of now. “We have been routinely checking the food quality in the SMC areas, while we will now intensify our raids.

However, we have not received any complaint from anywhere about the quality of food. We are concentrating on meat shops and eateries in and around SMC areas now.

We are also checking if the shops have trade licenses,” Mr Bhattacharya said. In another development, the Enforcement Branch seized sauce allegedly made of rotten pumpkin from Samaran Nagar at Matigara in Siliguri on Friday. The factory owner has been arrested in this connection.