TNN
Ludhiana: A day after health and family welfare minister Balbir Singh Sidhu directed all the dhaba operators and food handlers to get health fitness certificate from registered medical practitioners by December 2020, the small businessmen are unhappy.
The businessmen, who own dhabas and other small food trades, say they should be exempted from the formalities as the present situation makes doing business difficult.
Ranjit Singh, who owns a dhaba near Transport Nagar, says, “We cannot comply with the norms at this time, as we already are facing problems, like huge drop in business and rise in expenditure due to the pandemic. We request the government and the health minister to reconsider the decision and allow us to operate like this till March 2021 after which we will try our best to comply with all the norms.”
Gurpreet Singh, the owner of a food stall on Chandigarh Road, says, “The health minister has made mandatory the registration of all food business operators with the food safety department by December 2020. Also, all dhaba operators and food handlers must get health fitness certificates. But the procedure to complete these formalities is so complex and time consuming that it is not possible to abide by these in a month. Small food business operators in Punjab are already fulfilling many formalities and now more conditions have been imposed on us. The decision should be rolled back as it will only lead to hike in cost of doing business and wastage of time.”
Neelam Rani, owner of a tiffin service in the city, says, “The formalities are complex for small business owners like me as we have to visit departments to get ourselves registered. Instead, the government should have introduced self-certification system wherein we can fill online form and submit details to get certificate of fitness. The department can visit our premises and conduct inspection if required.”