Hygiene goes for a toss in city hotels

Vijayawada: Unhygienic conditions at food stalls and hotels have become a common thing in the city risking health of people who often depend on them for a quick grab. The city has hotels and canteens in every corner of main junctions and even big hotels at select places. Most of these food outlets give a pleasant look from outside. But many hotels and canteens in the city are being maintained with congested kitchens which are a shortcut to spread diseases.

Highlights:

• The civil supplies department has been assigned with the task of vigil over them.
• The question here is who will bell the cat, quips an official.

S Adam, a cook in a hotel, said that there was no hard and fast rule to run the hotels. “Hotels have lacked proper drainage system and often drains block creating trouble. We never use caps and gloves wherever necessary. Often we are forced to work even with bandages for burns or skin diseases. We mix atta and other stuff with the affected hands and nobody would visit our hotels if they have a close look at the conditions in which we are working.

I worked in many hotels and there has been no change in conditions of kitchens,” he reveals.Not all the hotels in the city offer clean water to customers. Germs can be seen lurking in huge drums where water is stored for a long time. They only clean when any customer notices them and engages in an argument. “Lack of clean water is not the only problem. The glasses are not washed properly. Smell emanates from glasses which are not disposable.

Even plates used to serve food are not cleaned with dish cleaning agents. They just spread a thin polythene piece or banana leaf on the plate and serve food. Actually the leaves carry dust and bacteria while polythene cover (there is a ban on using them) contains cancer causing agents. Pouches used for parcel of chutneys, curries and other food also plastic-based,” a bank employee Md Vaseem who is a frequenter to such food stalls complains.

Even the hotels and canteens which are housed in concrete buildings continue to run under unhygienic conditions, the state of umpteen numbers of push carts and mobile food stalls is the worst, says Sk Valli who suffered from food poisoning several times. “The very purpose of these stalls is not to abide by rule but to eke out a living. There are hardly three persons doing entire work in such stalls. No hygienic condition can be seen and the organisers even offer food at comparatively low price,” he shares the secret of these mushrooming stalls.

“Stale food and food with foreign materials like insects is being served by these food outlets. These things cannot come for questioning by anybody as the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC)’s health department has no power over the food outlets. The civil supplies department has been assigned with the task of vigil over them. The question here is who will bell the cat,” quipped an official who wants anonymity.

By Noor Shaik