U T Khader mulls health cards for employees of hotels, eateries across Karnataka

[email protected] (CD Network)
May 10, 2014
Bangalore, May 10: Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Minister U?T Khader has come up with a new plan of issuing health cards to employees of all hotels and eateries in the State to ensure they are hygienic, healthy and fit to work.

Speaking to media persons he said that his department is pushing for a more hygienic environment at hotels and roadside eateries in the light of the Food Safety and Security Act (FSSA.

utk“As part of the project, we are planning to issue health cards to hotels and eateries certifying their product quality is good for consumption,” said Khader.

If the plan is implemented, health cards will be issued to hotel and eatery workers after they undergo a physical examination by local government doctors, the minister said.

Currently, the department is formulating an action plan to put the scheme in place. There are as many as three lakh registered hotels and eateries in the State.

On the strict implementation of the Act, Khader said the department was trying to recruit more food safety inspectors.

Now, there are sanctioned posts for 377 food inspectors. Of these, 117 posts have been filled and 260 are vacant.

He said there had been a lot of talk over the last four years, but little had been done due to lack of political will to implement the FSSA.

“We are looking at fresh ideas to strengthen and implement the Act. I?also suggest that there needs to be decentralisation of power to act against those violating the FSSA. So, we are looking at assistant commissioners at the district level, and tahsildars at the taluk level to be nodal officers for food inspectors,” said Khader.

In the last four years, only 425 cases of adulteration and 225 cases of misbranding' have been filed against hotels, eateries, food and grocery stores, etc. Of these, only in four cases the department has fined the violators. It has collected a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh in these four cases.

The department officials claim that the rest of the cases are pending in various courts.

The department officials said the government would also direct eateries and hotels and grocery and food stores to display notice boards indicating they are covered under the FSSA.

They said the government would be giving out the numbers and designations of the district officers and the locations where citizens can send food samples for testing.

“In Bangalore, we have two government labs to test food. Along with them, we have seven private labs which can also conduct tests on food samples to detect their quality. Citizens can approach these labs for getting food samples tested and then register a complaint with our district officers,” Khader said.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 25,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 25: The government of Kerala under the leadership of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is all set to launch the 'Kerala Dialogue' -- a debate series on new concepts and development models during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A series of visionaries including noted political thinker Noam Chomsky and Nobel-laureate economist Amartya Sen will join this unique initiative that is to be rolled out from Friday.

The debate series to be inaugurated by the CM will feature prominent personalities from various walks of life including scientists, philosophers, diplomats, economists, writers, journalists, activists, technocrats and people's representatives.

The first episode will have Chomsky, Sen and WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan speaking on 'Kerala - Future Paths of Development'. 

State Planning Board vice chairman VK Ramachandran and senior journalist N Ram would be the moderators. The first episode would be telecast through the Chief Minister's official social media accounts.

The coming episodes in the series will also be telecast in the same manner. The government is of the view that the Kerala Dialogue series can ensure debates and dialogues on sustainable and inclusive development on the lines of the Kerala model.

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Friday, 26 Jun 2020

I am from Global University for Sustainability, with its executive team based in Hong Kong 

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News Network
February 12,2020

Belagavi, 12: Even though the investigation into the four abandoned country pistols that were recovered by the Karnataka police on the outskirts of Waghawade village in Belagavi taluk last weekend did not make any headway, the police are verifying if the weapons had been used by the assassin of Gauri Lankesh for training.

Four country pistols were found abandoned on the outskirts of Waghawade on Sunday. Locals informed that the police had taken the weapons for inspection.

Prima facie it appeared that the weapons were rusted and had not been used for long. Cases had been registered against unidentified persons and investigations were in progress.

After reports that the weapons could have been used for training by the assassin of Gauri Lankesh in the forests in Khanapur, a few kilometres away from the spot wherein they were found, police have been looking into this angle too.

Sources said the condition of the weapons indicated that they have not been used for decades but to allay doubt all aspects were being looked into.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 16,2020

Mangaluru, June 16: A youth has been arrested by the sleuths of Ullal police station on charge of sexually assaulting a minor girl and impregnating her on the outskirts of the city. 

The arrested has been identified as Lavakumar alias Shravan, a resident of Valacchil, who was working in a fast-food outlet at Thokkottu. 

According to the police, the accused had sexually assaulted his owner’s minor daughter. The incident came to light when the girl’s mother came to know that former was pregnant.

It is said that the girl’s mother, who had employed the accused, allowed him to stay in their house. The accused befriended the minor girl and sexually used her.

Based on a complaint filed by the girl’s mother, a case was registered at Ullal police station under Pocso Act. The police arrested him yesterday and produced him before a local court.

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