Jawed Khurshid

 

The next time you visit any restaurant or roadside eateries beware of its tongue-tingling samosas and vadas. You may drool over its very presence but it has all the potential to land you into a hospital.

 

Rajesh Yadav sells vada pav at Saki Naka and has a roaring business there since past many years. When you look at his hands you find one thing missing there, that is plastic gloves that has been made mandatory for road side eateries, to prevent diseases to spread.

 

When reminded of laws governing hygiene at public eateries, he simply gawked at the reporter.Like Yadav there are many who are ignorant of the law and are literally helping in disseminating communicable diseases, like cholera, diphtheria, diarrhea, etc.

 

Mumbai is exposed to such ailments in epidemic proportion. Whose responsibility is it to stem such rots?According to a former joint secretary in the ministry of urban development, Fazal Ahmad Khan, there has been a provision in the law for stringent action against caterers who overlook basic hygiene. ‘Now all the food laws have been consolidated to make one common act called Food Safety and Standard Act (FS&S Act),’ he said.

 

Recently many social and political outfits, in a drive to teach hygiene, even bashed up owners of such eateries.Its media exposure has led to raids of such stalls by the police and the FDA authorities a couple of months back. This has disciplined them, but that proved to be a short-term affair.

 

‘Everything is transitory here. After an initial lull, they started breaching the law with ruthless impunity,’ said Harish Shetty a resto-bar owner of the locality.Just imagine how harmful its consumption would be and the extent of damage it may cause to our delicate organs. The city nutritionists warn of its lethal portents, ‘Many contiguous diseases weaken us,’ they reasoned.   

 

However, the BMC claims that they have been ultra-strict and registered cases this year under the newly modified stringent version of the act that offers no respite to the offenders. Despite this the administration has failed to stem the rot. Don’t you smell a rat?