BANGALORE: The Health Department along with the Solid Waste Management Department of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) made a surprise visit to a few places in Russel Market, Shivajinagar, Church Street, Ulsoor, Shantinagar, Old Airport Road, and Vannarpet.
The Health Department focused mainly on hotels at Shivajinagar and Church Street. The BBMP Deputy Health Officer DR G K Suresh, said, “We have inspected Imperial Hotel at Shivajinagar where we found severe ventilation problems. Food particles from the previous day were also present in the kitchen.”
On their visit to Nando’s Hotel, Church Street, the health officials were not satisfied with the storage facilities for the food. There was also a lack of hygiene. Dr Suresh said, “Currently, we have educated the hotel staff and their owners on how to maintain hygiene, proper storage facility and on the necessity of adequate ventilation. We have issued notices to these hotels to comply with the guidelines. We will undertake an inspection after three days to ensure that the guidelines are followed. Defaulters will be penalised severely.”
The focus of the Solid Waste Management Department was at Russel Market, Ulsoor, Shantinagar, Old Airport Road and Vannarpet. Superintendent Engineer Govindraj said, “We visited these places to ensure that the garbage was cleared and shifted to the dumping ground on a regular basis. In most places, it was carried out properly. We also discovered that two shops were running business without the trade license at Shri Circle, near Ulsoor lake. The health officers have asked them to shut the shops with immediate effect.”
When City Express tried to contact the hotel owners to get their reactions, they either denied the inspection or declined to comment on the issue. Committee Health Chairperson Dr Geetha Shasikumar and Senior Health Officer Ramkrishnaiah were part of the team.