Local traders rake in moolah as No. of pilgrims rises
Members of a family have their lunch, after visiting the Pushkar ghats, at the RTC complex in Rajahmundry on Wednesday. (Photo: DC)
Rajahmundry: While devotees from different parts of the country are rushing to take a holy dip in the Godavari river, the local businessmen in Rajahmundry are making all efforts to make money by hiking all the prices during the twelve-day event.
The prices of the eatable have been doubled and at some places it has tripled. “The prices of all the items like breakfast, meals, biscuits, cold drinks and water bottles has been hiked from the first day of Godavari Maha Pushkaralu,” a devotee expressed shock saying that the shopkeeper demanded Rs 30 for a litre of packaged drinking water bottle.
As all the prices of eatables and water bottles were hiked all of a sudden, the citizens and pilgrims expressed their ire at the official apathy in controlling the prices of essential commodities. “It costs Rs 50 for a full plate meal at the Devi Chowk centre on ordinary days, but the same has been now increased to Rs 80 with the arrival of the pilgrims for the Push-karalu,” said Raghu, a student
Many devotees also expressed apprehensions over the poor quality of food being served at hotels. Left with no other option, the helpless devotees who have come from distant places end paying more than MRPs for various commodities. “Officials have failed to take action on the erring traders even after many complaints by the pilgrims,” said a devotee Mr Muralikrishna, from Vishakhapatnam.
Officials to enforce food safety rules:
Food control authorities are on the prowl to take the food business operators to task after finding out that they were misusing ice, food colours and serving stale food at hotels. As a large number of devotees are arriving in the city to take holy dip as part of Godavari Maha Pushkaralu, the food business operators are taking advantage of the situation to make quick money.
Accordingly, fruit juice centres are using the ice meant for freezing marine food, to cool the juices. The authorities have warned that such ice is prepared by using water which is not good for the human consumption. The ice prepared with such water if added to the juice to cool it , those consuming the same would face various health problems.
Similarly, the authorities also noticed the usage of banned food colours in preparation of sweets at some confectioneries in the city. People consuming such sweets, with high quantity colours in it, may fall sick.
The authorities have also noticed that a large number of hotels in the city are serving stale food to the customers, most of them are the devotees who are in the city to take part in the Pushkaralu.
Food inspector B.V.S.R.K. Prasad said, “We are keeping a close watch on the food outlets resorting to such activities to make quick money. We are destroying the stale food as soon as we find during inspection and are warning the hotelier not to serve such food to customers. We are cautioning them not to flout the norms while preparing food items. If they failed to comply with the directions, we will book cases as per the norms.”
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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