Eating out in Ahmedabad: Are you biting into health hazard?

Next time you go out to gorge on your favourite food beware! Because the eatery you may be visiting may not be legal and is running without an appropriate health licence.

There are only a handful of hotels and restaurants in western Ahmedabad that run 'legally'. More than 200 eateries operate in this part of the city, around 160 of which have no health licence.

In city's west zone, 70 eateries operate without health license, 40 of which have obtained Building Usage (BU) permission but have not bothered to obtain health license. The remaining eateries have either applied for new license or renewal. Similarly, around 89 eateries run sans license in the new west zone.

Building usage permission is a must for obtaining health license. However, in the newly merged areas of new west zone and some parts of east and north zones, the civic body has relaxed the norms. It decided to renew the licenses obtained earlier from local bodies such as gram panchayat and nagarpalikas even though they do not have BU permission.

The civic body has found itself in a Catch-22 situation regarding the issue of health license. Some  eateries have BU permission but don't possess health license, while some have none. "It would be unfair to seal hotels and restaurants having BU permission but not possessing health licence. The reason is that majority of the eateries have neither BU nor health license," said health department sources.

Sources said if the department carries out a campaign to seal all eateries without health licence, only a few of them will survive.
SP Kulkarni, medical officer of health department of AMC, said that the department has prepared the list of hotels and restaurants operating in all six wards of the west zone in the city and are checking whether they have obtained necessary permissions including BU permission and health licence.

"Some of the hotels and restaurants have obtained BU permission but don't have health licence. It needs to be checked whether they were granted BU permission for hotel or restaurant business and is there change of use or not? The process has been carried out in consultation with the estate and town development department," he said.

The civic body is considering asking the hotels and restaurants with BU permission to obtain health license. "We need to streamline the process and so need to start at some point. The department will get the hotels and restaurants with BU permission to obtain health license and the drive will be carried out soon," said IK Patel, deputy municipal commissioner of AMC's health department.