Alleged quid pro quo between night food court stall owners & politicians

Alleged quid pro quo between night food court stall owners & politicians

SRIKAR (name changed) recently came to Vijayawada to attend his friend’s marriage. The software professional from Hyderabad was all excited when he came to know about Night Food Courts near Indira Gan

VIJAYAWADA: SRIKAR (name changed) recently came to Vijayawada to attend his friend’s marriage. The software professional from Hyderabad was all excited when he came to know about Night Food Courts near Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation (IGMC) stadium. Accompanied by his friends from Hyderabad, an ecstatic Srikar went to the Night Food Court on the same day of the marriage and ordered Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani.

Unfortunately, his excitement lasted only for a few minutes after he found the biryani served to him was not fresh and the chicken pieces emanated a foul smell. He prevented his friends from consuming the biryani and brought it to the notice of stall owner. “Shockingly, the owner did not own up his fault and instead took offence when we told the food was reeking. When we warned to take the issue to concerned officials, he replied arrogantly,” said a dejected Srikar.

This is not only the case with Srikar. Many other food lovers have faced similar incidents at the two food courts in city. According to sources in the food safety department, MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao is allegedly supporting the food stall operators and even putting pressures on officials not to conduct raids on the stalls. Whenever the discussion rises who is to blame, everyone points their fingers to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) officials and corporation officials who have the onus of maintaining public health standards.

“The fact is it is the politicians in the range of corporator and MLAs are safeguarding the stall owners from the raids being carried out by food safety department. If such is the case, how can we do our duties?” said a food safety official on the condition of anonymity. More than 200 stalls operating in the two food courts in the city do not have a licence from the Food Safety department. “We have been telling the stall owners to obtain licence to sell food at IGMC and BRTS Road but none have paid heed to our notices,” said regional Food Safety official N Purnachandra Rao. Bonda said he has no role in preventing officials from performing their duties and ruled out the allegations against him of collecting monthly collection from stall owners is false.

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