Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Tuesday directed eateries in the state to prominently display the names and addresses of their operators, proprietors and managers, PTI reported.
The government also said that chefs and servers must wear masks and gloves, and that closed-circuit television cameras must be installed in restaurants and hotels.
The state government claimed that the directive was aimed at ensuring cleanliness in eateries. However, the order came barely two months after a controversy erupted over a government directive that had asked eateries along the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage route to display their owners’ names.
During the Kanwar Yatra, devotees walk hundreds of kilometres to collect water from the Ganga near Haridwar and carry it back to their home states. They mainly come from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.
The state government had defended its diktat before the Supreme Court, saying that “even small confusions regarding the kind of food Kanwariyas are served has the potential to hurt their religious sentiments”.
The Supreme Court issued an interim stay on the order on July 22 after a batch of petitions argued that it would facilitate discrimination on the grounds of religion and caste.
Adityanath, while announcing the fresh directive to restaurants and hotels on Tuesday, referred to recent videos that purportedly showed a teenager spitting on rotis in Saharanpur and a vendor in Ghaziabad serving fruit juice allegedly mixed with urine to customers.
“In recent times, incidents of adulterating food items such as juice, dal and roti with human waste, inedible, or dirty substances have been reported from various parts of the country,” a statement from the chief minister’s office read, according to the Hindustan Times. “These acts are atrocious, posing a serious threat to public health.”
Adityanath directed officials to thoroughly investigate and verify the credentials of hotels, dhabas and restaurants.
“Dhabas, restaurants and food establishments should be thoroughly investigated and police verification of every employee should be done and necessary amendments should also be made in the Food Safety and Standards Act to ensure the purity and sanctity of food items,” the chief minister said, according to PTI.
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