There are a number of rules that regulate what a restaurant can and can't do in our city, but these seem to exist on paper alone
Three BMC officials visited the rooftop area at Koyla in Colaba at 4.30 pm, and reported that no hookah was served there. File pic
It's been a couple of months since 14 people were killed at a pub that allegedly violated fire safety and building code rules. Since that tragedy, a number of restaurants and bars have been raided for all kinds of reasons. Whether or not all the guilty establishments around have been punished is debatable though, considering the people doling out punishments are employed by the BMC.
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A few weeks ago, for instance, a rooftop pub was inspected by a few BMC officers who wanted to see whether or not it offered patrons hookahs. They visited it twice and promptly gave it the all-clear. However, like all conscientious officers, they visited it at 4.30 pm, when rooftop restaurants are presumably open at the BMC alone. Luckily, a resident who had alerted officials in the first place went back with photographic evidence, after which the place was shut down. Not only did the establishment have no licence to offer hookahs, it wasn't even licensed to run a restaurant on the roof.
The incident couldn't have raised many eyebrows in a city where restaurant rules are flouted on a regular basis. Consider the number of licences required for one to open an eating establishment. For a start, you need a Food Licence. Take a walk down to your nearest railway station and ask yourself how many of the places serving all kinds of eatables there are licensed to do so. Then there is the Health Trade Licence, issued by the health department of the state. What does it do? Your guess is as good as mine. You then need an Eating House licence from the police, for reasons known to the police alone. The Fire Security Certificate from the fire department makes sense, even though there a million places that prove how poorly it is implemented.
Then there is the liquor/bar licence from the Excise Commissioner. Do you know of any place that isn't supposed to serve alcohol but does so anyway? Or any place that manages to serve it long after the law says it can't? If you do, you're smarter than everyone in the BMC, because no one in that organisation is aware of this happening. There's also a Lift Clearance, a licence for playing music, and an Environmental Clearance certificate from the city pollution board. Think about these things the next time you decide to eat out, and recognise the impunity with which these rules are broken on a regular basis, simply because someone paid by your taxes to perform a role has chosen not to do so.
Restaurants also need insurances for all kinds of possible liabilities. It may be interesting to find out whether or not families of those who perished in the Kamala Mills tragedy of December were compensated for the senseless losses they had to endure. Did the pubs have insurance cover for themselves? Did this coverage lapse in the event of rules that were obviously violated?
There's also a Signage Licence required from the BMC, presumably to make sure no restaurant opens with a name that offends anyone in our easily offended nation. There's another licence under the Shops and Establishments Act that may be exactly like the other licences mentioned, or radically different from them, because no one bothers with the fine print. Finally, one requires the approval of the Weights & Measures Department. This falls under the purview of the Legal Metrology Organisation which, according to its unintentionally hilarious website, exists to protect the interests of consumers by inspecting all kinds of premises to verify the accuracy of weights and measures being used, as well as to check their contents.
It is also supposed to prevent overpricing. For every department that issues a licence, there's a system already at work to help undermine the efficacy of the document being offered. This is an open secret that no one in the BMC wants to accept, because to admit to corruption at every level would go against the PR campaigns of the government. The presence of this long list of checks and balances ought to have made the restaurants of Bombay among the safest places on the planet. Why, then, are residents confronted not just with substandard food and hazardous exits, but with accidents waiting to happen when they step out for something as mundane as dinner?
When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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