The mushrooming of unregistered food stalls in the nook and corner of the steel city here has been a cause of concern for denizens in the nonappearance of a Food Inspector. While thousands of stalls selling lassi, sugarcane juice, gupchup, chow mein bada and samosa have come up on the sides of main roads and lanes, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation has reportedly no knowledge about the identity of the stall owners.
“No one is there to inspect the purity of the foods being served in thousands of stalls in Rourkela. The Corporation authorities are yet to take steps for the registration of these stalls,” said some residents.
Though the annual registration fee per stall is Rs100 only, many stall owners are yet to register their stalls with the Corporation. Sources said by February 2014 the total number of registered stalls were hardly 1,000, though the actual figure would be much more than that.
It is also alleged many owners interested to register their stalls have been harassed in the corporation office. “On many occasions we have been asked to pay hush money in office for which we prefer not to register our stalls,” alleged many. As the roadside stalls are not properly inspected by the Corporation; the vendors don’t take adequate care to prepare hygienic food. The Food Inspector’s post lying vacant for the last seven year has added to the denizens’ woes. It is learnt that one and a half years back an order had asked Sundergarh Food Inspector to officiate here for three days in a week but that order is yet to be executed.
Demanding an early posting of a Food Inspector a year back the then Rourkela Bar Association president and youth leader Sadananada Sahoo had sat in dharana in front of Corporation (then it was Municipality) and after given assurance he had called off his agitation. But with no result in a year, a couple of weeks back he had again sat in dharana for two days and had got overwhelming support across the political parties here. After an assurance from the Municipal Commissioner, he withdrew his dharana. According to Municipal Commissioner DP Mohapatra, he had already requested the Government for early posting of a Food Inspector and he was hopeful that a quick response would come as the city has already got a corporation tag. He also admits that due to vacancy of Food Inspector’s post for long, which is very essential for an UlB, many problems have cropped up in keeping vigil on the adulteration foods and its traders.
It may be noted that taking adulterated food from different stalls and hotels, many people were affected with food poisons on several occasions here. Even taking advantage of absence of a Food Inspector, many renowned hoteliers are also allegedly supplying adulterated food to the consumers. People have demanded that the post of Food Inspector be filled up soon.