Raja Vari Ruchulu hotel fined Rs 5,000 after customer finds wire in parcel

Hyderabad: Raja Vari Ruchulu hotel in Kukatpally was fined for Rs. 5,000 on January 16 by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), for not complying with the food safety rules.

The food safety authorities had acted upon the complaint of one Mr. Srinivas Bellam, who had found an iron wire in his food ordered via Zomato from Raja Vari Ruchulu hotel in Kukatpally.

Srinivas Bellam, who had ordered a chicken biryani and curd rice, on January 15, from Raja Vari Ruchulu, found the wire while having the food. Speaking to NewsMeter, he said, “While eating, I found the iron wire, and I am fortunate enough that I didn’t swallow it with the biryani. If it had reached my throat, I would have been hospitalized.”

Bellam, soon clicked a picture and preserved the iron wire as evidence. He had also sent the picture to Zomato's customer support team. Srinivas Bellam said, "I immediately informed the Zomato team and they simply offered me a discount coupon, saying that they are sorry for the inconvenience. The food delivery app thinks that everything can be solved by discount coupons.”

The food inspectors from GHMC inspected Raja Vari Ruchulu hotel based on the complaint of the Bellam and fined the hotel for not maintaining hygienic kitchen.

GHMC food inspector, Sudarshan Reddy said, “Usually in such cases, the hotel is only fined as they are responsible for packing the food. The delivery platforms usually bail out stating that they are just responsible for delivery and not for cooking and packaging the food. In a week, GHMC receives at least 2-3 complaints of the similar kind. The hotels also don’t maintain proper hygiene most of the times and they are fined.”

Last year in October, Paradise Hotel was fined Rs. 1 lakh as a customer had complained of finding hair in their food served to them. The food inspectors when raided the hotel found that the hotel maintained unhygienic kitchens; they also found rotten vegetables and single-use plastic in the kitchen.