NEW DELHI: In order to bring relief to restaurants across the city, the Delhi government has approved the proposal for these businesses to operate round-the-clock. It has also initiated the process to abolish health trade licenses from local bodies for restaurants within 10 days.
The government also announced measures such as initiating a process to abolish police licences and tourism licenses to end ‘permit raj’ in the industry. These decisions taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and attended by a delegation of hotel owners on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by several cabinet ministers including Deputy CM Manish Sisoida, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, MCD commissioner and officials of various departments. As part of ‘Delhi Model’ for ease of doing business, restauratnts have been allowed to operate 24x7, provided that they submit an undertaking that they will take care of the health and security of their staff.
“Delhi’s restaurants are the pride of the city and provide employment to lakhs of people. I have directed all respective departments to remove unnecessary hassles in the smooth running of restaurants,” said Kejriwal after the meeting.
During the meeting, its was discussed that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a body operating under Government of India, already ensures the issuing of food and safety hygiene licenses. Thus, the issuing of health trade licenses by the local bodies has made the task duplicitious and irrelevant.
The delegation also requested the abolishment of the police licenses, since restaurants are a part of the retail sector and no other retail establishment is required to obtain such a license. The CM assured that a decision to provide relief from police licenses will soon be taken after discussions with the concerned stakeholders.