Swiggy, Zomato, others remove 10,500 restaurants for violating food safety law
New Delhi, Dec 14: As many as 10,500 restaurants have been de-listed by e-commerce firms like Zomato and Swiggy for not having license or registration under the food safety law, Parliament was told Friday.
Minister of state for health Ashwini Kumar Choubey said the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India or FSSAI in July directed food e-commerce firms to de-list the the restaurants which don't have registration under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006.
"The Food delivery aggregators informed that they have already initiated action against the defaulting partner hotels/restaurants.
"As per information received, Zomato has delisted 2,500, Swiggy 4,000, Foodpanda 1,800, UberEats 2,000 and foodcloud 200 unlicensed/unregistered FBOs," he said in reply to a question.
The implementation and enforcement of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 Rules and Regulations made thereunder, primarily rests with state and UT governments, he said.
Commissioner of Food Safety of all states and UTs have been requested to take necessary action to bring all such FBOs or food business operators under the ambit of FSS Act through registration.
No one shall commence or carry on any food business without license or registration under the Act, he said.
Choubey stated further regular surveillance, monitoring, inspection and random sampling of food products are carried out by officials to check compliance of the standards and norms.
In case where the food samples are found to be non- conforming, penal action has been initiated, he stated.
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Vinod Tawde seeks apology from Kharge, Rahul through legal notice, warns of defamation lawsuit
Cash-for-vote row
New Delhi, Nov 22: BJP leader Vinod Tawde has demanded an apology from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for making "false and baseless" allegations against him in the cash-for-votes incident in Maharashtra, saying if they don't he would sue them for defamation.
Tawde was accused by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, a regional party, of distributing Rs 5 crore to woo voters, with its members barging into a hotel room on November 19 in a Mumbai suburb, where the BJP leader was present.
The former Maharashtra minister and BJP national general secretary claimed innocence, saying the alleged amount was not recovered in the probe by the Election Commission and police.
"The Congress only believes in spreading lies, and this incident is a proof of the party's low level politics to dent me and my party's image," Tawde said.
The two Congress leaders and the party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate seized on the row to accuse the BJP of using money power to influence the November 20 assembly polls in the state.
The legal notice sent to the three claimed that they were aware that they were pushing a "totally false story fabricated" by them.
"You all have deliberately, mischievously with the sole intention of damaging the reputation of our client intentionally fabricated the story distribution of money. You all have published false, baseless allegations against our client on various media for tarnishing his image in the eyes of right thinking people in the society," the notice read.
The Congress leaders were in a "great hurry" to damage Tawde's reputation, they did not bother to check the fact and or despite knowing the entire fact they made the false, baseless allegations, it said.
"The entire imputation made by you all are totally false, baseless, malicious and mala fide and as our client is in no way involved in any such illegal activity and as a responsible office bearer of the national political party he is aware of his duties," it added.
The notice demanded an "unconditional apology" to Tawde within 24 hours from the time the receipt of the notice, which was sent on November 21, and published in newspapers and X.
If they do not offer apology, then Tawde will initiate criminal proceedings under Section 356, which covers defamation, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and also civil proceedings for the damages of Rs 100 crore against the three Congress leaders, the notice said.
