Amid Uttar Pradesh's mandate on displaying the names of the owners and food safety license of eateries in the state during the Kanwar Yatra, another case of alleged deceit has come to light from the Moradabad district where a restaurant operating under the name 'Neelkanth Family Dhaba' was found to be owned by a man named Sharaft Hussain.
This comes after a similar case in Muzaffarnagar, which triggered a political row and anger among Kanwariyas.
The Neelkanth dhaba is located on the Moradabad-Lucknow Highway, under the jurisdiction of the Mundapande police station. The revelation came during an inspection conducted by the Food Safety Department. The assistant commissioner of the department has issued a stern warning to the dhaba owner, instructing him to change the name of the establishment or face closure.
UP government's drive during Kanwar Yatra
The Moradabad–Lucknow Highway is a busy route for the annual Kanwar Yatra, where devotees travel on foot up to Bareilly. As part of a special inspection campaign, the assistant commissioner and his team were checking dhabas and hotels along the route for authenticity and hygiene, using forms and stickers from the Food Safety Connect App. During this drive, they inspected the eatery and found it was being operated under a misleading name. The actual proprietor turned out to be Sharafat, son of Chhuttan.
Owners gets two options
When officials arrived at the dhaba and asked for its license, the name on record was Neelkanth Family Dhaba, a name associated with Lord Shiva. However, the owner was revealed to be Sharafat Hussain. On being confronted with the facts, he immediately began pleading with the officials, saying, "Sir, I will change the name."
Following the revelations, the Assistant Commissioner of the Food Safety Department acted as per Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's directive and issued a strict notice to the dhaba operator. A sticker with the owner's real identity was pasted on the premises using the Food Safety Connect App. Assistant Commissioner Rajvansh Srivastava stated, "The dhaba is registered, and the sticker has been placed. The name is Neelkanth, but the proprietor is Sharafat. He has been told, either change the name or shut down the dhaba."
(Inputs from Rajeev Sharma)
