Triggering a crisis, orders from the Food Safety Commissionerate (FSC) are reaching local bodies asking health inspectors not to inspect eateries including hotels and bakeries. What it meant is that, instead, food inspectors would do the job. But, there aren’t as many food inspectors to do the inspection that’s currently done by health inspectors.“There are less than 100 food inspectors across the state, and how would they cover all the hotels and bakeries to ensure their compliance with the law?,” is the vexed question. The change has been necessitated with the coming into force of the new Food Safety and Standards Act from August 5, 2011.With the new law in place, the sections related to food in the Travancore-Cochin Public Health Act and the Madras Public Health Act were repealed, divesting health inspectors in local bodies of their powers to check food articles in hotels and restaurants. According to a rough estimate, one food inspector under the FSC will have to cover hotels and restaurants in at least two municipalities. According to sources, the FSC has issued the circular in the light of a few cases being filed by the Hotel and Restaurant bodies in the high court challenging inspection of eateries by health inspectors. Several local bodies, especially municipal corporations and their political higher-ups, are adamant that health inspectors continue to conduct the inspection.
“Under the Kerala Municipal Act, the D&O trade licence is issued to hotels by the local bodies and the relevant rules under it empower local bodies to conduct inspections in eateries. Nobody can deny us of such powers,” said B. Sasikumar, state vice-president of Kerala municipal and corporation staff association and health inspector at Kochi Corporation.
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