Street stalls to legacy joints: Who’s on Kolkata food check crosshairs, and why

In a small, narrow alley at No. 2, Dhapa Road, sits the 40-year-old Matri Misthana Bhandar. On the upper floor, labourers could be seen peering down from a closed room. When called, all they said was, “Kaam band hai abhi, pata nai kab khulega.

(The work is stalled, we don’t know when it will resume).” The shop is among the 40 eateries that had their licences suspended on Tuesday over alleged food safety violations, in a massive crackdown by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation ahead of the festive season.

The Indian Express on Wednesday visited eight of the 40 establishments in Kolkata to find several owners fuming and customers relieved. “Ours is a very small and very old sweet shop… Naturally, its walls look old. Now, before we could work upon their instructions, we got a message that our license has been suspended.

We have 4-5 labourers who work here on a daily basis. We can’t keep them engaged without any sales and have to let them go.” While Misra says food safety is important, he feels the crackdown was “unfair”. “The action shouldn’t be limited to shops that are age-old and are small, catering to middle or lower-middle-class people.

There are hundreds of shops and outlets; how many big sweet shops have been visited by the KMC, that must be seen, too…” Perhaps one of the most prominent legacy brands to face the brunt of the civic body crackdown was the 141-year-old Balaram Mullick & Radharaman Mullick (BMRM).

The KMC’s list of 40 suspended establishments mentioned a manufacturing unit located at 143, BL Saha Road, as owned by the legacy brand BMRM — a name which also found its mention in KMC administrator Smita Pandey’s Tuesday’s press conference where she had said that action was taken against many “big names”.

However, BMRM director Sudip Mullick has maintained that the said unit located at the BL Saha Road address had no links with their company which has 18 outlets in the city. He said that a KMC team had visited their Salt Lake City Centre unit last week, and gave it a clean chit.

There has never been any quality problem with their products, he claimed. In an official statement released Tuesday, the company said: “The address and outlet…have no relation whatsoever with the original Balaram Mullick & Radharaman Mullick.The said establishment is not owned, operated, managed or controlled by us.” The company is HACCP and ISO certified, and follows all norms and regulations set by the FSSAI, with in-house food laboratories for regular testing and monitoring, the statement added.

The Indian Express visited the said manufacturing unit located at the BL Saha Road address on Wednesday, where a caretaker confirmed that sweet-making operations were still continuing inside. It is not just the old shops that figure in the KMC suspension list — new shops are also under the scanner.

Less than a kilometer from Dhapa road is the New Poushee Sweets, a small year-and-a-half-old shop at Hatgachia Dhapa in Ward No. 58 of the KMC area near Science City. The owners feel the civic body did not give them enough time to comply with the norms.

Abhijit Ghosh, who runs the outlet, said, “First the KMC team came in August-end and then again on September 3. They just asked us to do a water test. The second time they told us to rectify a few things: pest control, cleanliness, and to keep the dustbins closed at all times.

They had told us we could rectify all this before they visit for a third time…” “But just a few hours ago, the police suddenly came and told us to shut our shop. They said our name was on the list of 40 shops. At least they should have pasted a notice, but no, we came to know when cops came and informed us.” Abhijit informed that the sweets are not prepared at this shop but a manufacturing unit based in Tollygunge, from where they also supply them to several other small shops.

“We are small businessmen. It is the beginning of the festive season. We were also threatened that we might be arrested if we don’t keep it shut..,” he laments. Outside Abhijit’s closed shop were a few women sitting and chatting.

When asked about the sudden closure of the neighbourhood sweet shop, a local resident, Lokhi Bora said, “You take two rupees extra, but give us the right food and sweets. Don’t play with the lives of common people.” She said she welcomed the move.

A similar scene unfolded outside a small fast-food joint, KP Singh UP Wala Restaurant Fast Food Centre, which was shuttered following its suspension order.