Just a few days are left for the holy month of Ramadan, the government has started bracing up to act against the black marketers and others within the markets, especially in Srinagar. But, these drives are often kept for special occasions as nothing fruitful has come up so far with these drives, putting a question mark over the seriousness of the administration. On Wednesday, a special team of officers conducted rigorous market checking of various food business units including restaurants, fast food outlets, tea stalls and ethnic street food makers. During the intensive market checking a fine of Rs 65000 was imposed on 34 Food Business Units operating in various areas of Srinagar for insanitary conditions and violation of Food Safety Regulations 2011. In addition, 5 improvement notices were also issued to the dealers with the directions to take necessary steps to improve their premises and food operations as per the standards laid down in the Food Safety and Standards Act. One fails to understand why these drives are being carried out only on special occasions and why these drives fail to bring some fruits for the general public. A recent drive launched by the authorities against the mutton dealers has failed to reach the logical conclusion as there has been no end to selling meat at exorbitant rates to the people, thus pushing the consumers to the wall. Therefore, the government must come up with stringent measures to ensure that there is no space for the people to sell essentials at exorbitant rates so that the people here could heave a sigh of relief.
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