Most of the restaurants and confectioneries in Barisal city have been allegedly selling unhygienic food items and people dependent on these places for food are facing major health risk. While the BCC (Barisal City Corporation) and district administration have conducted mobile courts against such crimes and fined establishment owners in large numbers, the situation remains unchanged. According to BCC’s health and food department, of the 3,000 hotels and restaurants in the city, only 1,570 have taken clearance by paying registration fees right at the beginning. Further, only 285 establishments have renewed their licence (till the time of filing this report) and 90 per cent have no licence. With poor hygiene in most
hotels and restaurants, BCC started mobile courts in 2005 and conducted 1,000 drives to bring up standards of these hotels but in vain. Rather, mobile courts ended up making money under the guise of fines; in the past nine months, BCC conducted 80 mobile courts, filed 60 cases and collected Tk. 1.25 lakh.
This correspondent recently visited some “famous” restaurants in the city and was shocked by what he found. The kitchen in most places resembled a dumping ground. Cleanliness was absent and khichuri, biryani, singara, puri, peaju, chatpoti and cakes were being prepared and sold in the most unhygienic manner. What’s more, some of the cooks and workers were suffering from skin diseases. Although BCC’s sanitation department is supposed to ensure that hygiene is maintained, the impact of its work could hardly be seen in these places. "We have to eat this kind of food because we have no better option,” rued a couple of customers. Some of them said they could not figure out what they were eating.
A 1959 law warrants that no hotel or restaurant can be set up without maintaining health and hygiene in terms of preparation and serving of food items. Sources said authorities were turning a blind eye to what was going on and were just collecting money without bothering about food standards. Food and Sanitation Officer, BCC, Md. Jahangir Mollah, said they were trying to improve the situation by conducting year-long mobile drives in the city. Whereas General Secretary, Consumers Association of Bangladesh, Barisal district unit, Rangeet Datta, said mere drives would not help improve the situation and concerted action including strict monitoring was needed.