NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has sought public feedback on its draft policy concerning independent food outlets in the national capital that seeks to ease licensing norms and aid their expansion. The policy was announced in the Rozgar Budget 2022-23 by the then finance minister Manish Sisodia. The last date for public feedback is July 20.
According to the draft, the govt has decided to recognise the existence of independent food outlets as a separate activity since most of the stakeholder departments of the govt do not have a separate category named ‘Independent Food outlets’ in the policy regime.“The term ‘independent food outlet’ shall include other similar terminology such as cloud kitchen, ghost kitchen, dark kitchen, base kitchen, satellite kitchen and virtual kitchen etc.,” it said.
‘Independent food outlet’ shall mean those outlets that operate independently in any commercial or industrial space without any of its products being sold to consumers on-site,’ the draft mentions. Specifying the definition of independent food outlets, the draft specified that all food/products of such outlets should be invariably delivered to the consumers by way of delivery personnel.
However, outlets that are attached to dine-in restaurants or takeaway establishments should not be specified as independent food outlets. The Delhi government’s Department of Industries has been mandated to develop a single-window portal for licensing and compliance under the recently notified start-up policy.
The single-window portal will also function as an online platform to facilitate all licences and permission for setting up and operating independent food outlets in Delhi. The policy proposes for removal of the requirement of a fire NOC while stressing that a ‘no fire NOC’ should be required for the establishment and operation of independent food outlets in industrial and commercial locations for covered areas below 250 square metres.
The policy envisions 24X7 operations for such outlets.The Labour department will examine and bring suitable amendments to permit round-the-clock operations for independent food outlets.It proposes the adoption of a computerised inspection management system.