Kurnool: With unauthorised eateries coming up regularly along the main roads without adhering to minimum hygiene, public health issues are being ignored within Kurnool Municipal Corporation (KMC)limits.
Mobile kitchens and push carts hitch their wagons even on the open nalas. With any open space nearby, pigs and dogs may be seen feasting on the left overs.
The quality of food is bad, said a bystander in the upmarket Venkat Ramana Colony.
The KMC sanitation wing is ill equipped to enforce sanitation. Colonies are not sprayed with disinfectants or fumigated. When contacted, Municipal Commissioner Ravinder Babu told this newspaper that the corporation does not have food inspectors. The District Food Inspector is being tasked with enforcing hygiene in hotels and at public places.
The sanitation department should visit periodically to clean up the garbage, he said. KMC Health Officer Kalyan Chakravarthi, when contacted, said that he had no information on the issue adding that he would check and initiate remedial measures. He said that the department conducts periodic raids on the hotels and public eateries.
During the last meeting, a resolution was passed to regularise the roadside eateries within the parameters of the hygiene. However, no decision yet has been taken, he said. Hotels and dabhas are said to be serving stale meat. Raids conducted by the KMC confirmed this fact.
The Health Officer said that we could not pinpoint which hotel or Dabha was doing this but there are instances of stale meat being served, he said.
Elsewhere in the district too, in major municipalities public health has been compromised owing to the lax administration of the civic bodies.
Food vendors in Nandyal, Yemmiganur, and Adoni Municipalities reportedly sell stale food at low prices. Kurnool Economic Forum convenor Prof. Virahat said that villagers were unaware of machinations of these traders while civic authorities have turned a blind eye to the open loot that is causing health problems to public.
