Warning: More raids on eateries

KOCHI: Going ahead with the efforts to identify restaurants and eateries which serve stale food, the District Health officials have decided to carry out more raids in the Corporation and municipal areas of the district. The officials said that more raids would be conducted in a week’s time. Meanwhile, the Hotel and Restaurants Association has come up against the raids by the officials.A meeting of the top officials, including District Medical Officer Sudhakaram, Additional DMO Hasina, District Health Officer (Rural) Sreenivasan and other district officials which met on Thursday decided to continue with the raids. “We have not been revealing the names of the restaurants and hotels now, as a preliminary warning has been given to them. Within a week there will be more raids. A final decision on  what action should be taken against these hotels will be taken after the raids. There will be strict action, including cancellation of licences,” said District Health Officer (Rural) Sreenivasan. The district authorities on Wednesday had confiscated huge quantity of stale food from as many as 235 restaurants at 17 centres across Ernakulam district. The raids were conducted in the wake of the recent spread of H1N1 fever and other contagious diseases. Meanwhile, the Kerala Hotel and Restaurants Association has come up against the raids by the officials. A meeting of the Association, which will be held on Friday, will decide the future course of action in this regard. They said they had no issues in seizing stale food, but giving it wide publicity will adversely affect the business, they said. “We have discussed the issue. The DMO officials carry out the raids just to get public attention. They declare it as three or four days old without carrying out any laboratory tests. That itself is condemnable. In our next meeting we will decide the future course of action, based on which we may carry out protest march to the DMO office. If necessary, we will close down the restaurants for some time,” said Jose Mohan, state general secretary of the Kerala Hotels and Restaurants Association. “What about dengue and malaria fever? Is it because of the stale food?” he asks.