Hyderabad: The fine for hotels violating basic sanitary or structural norms has been finalised by GHMC, and this is styled as the Ten Commandments.
Citizens can complain about violations like non- supply of clean water, supply of stale food, use of banned plastic covers, etc, to the GHMC, and fines will follow. The fine structure was finalised as there have been complaints in the past from the hotel industry about the way fines were imposed on them for various violations.
Ms Hari Chandana Dasari, who formulated the commandments, said, “When the GHMC cracked its whip on hoteliers across Greater Hyderabad, several allegations came up, like the fines were similar to that of the previous traffic challan system, wherein the staff randomly checked the hotels and imposed fines as per their whims and fancies. There was also allegations of officials po-cking the fine amount. This forced GHMC to int-roduce a full-fledge mechanism of fining hotels.”
The GHMC launched an app called ‘HIA’ – Hotel Inspection Application, for GHMC staff inspecting hotels. The officials on inspection will be taking a gadget and a printer, the violations identified will be recorded in the tab (gadget) and accordingly the fine amount will pop up. The categories relate to trade and food licence, hygiene, silt chambers , waste segregation and disposal method, supply of clean water etc.
Checking of the stamped meat procured by hotels can be done only by medical officers of GHMC, not the common man. The App also has a separate criteria for Haleem preparation. All hotels engaged in this must have their bhatis on the ground floor. Those violating this rule will be fined. The Municipal Corporation will soon hold a meet of the Hyderabad hotel association, to announce the terms and conditions. The hotel owners will be advised to display the categories of fine along with trade licence.
Illegal slaughtering of animals to continue and there will be no major crackdown on them. This is because those engaged in slaughter business are vote banks for both the ruling party and the Opposition.
The GHMC does not dare to enter slaughter houses across the city because these are backed by politicians.
