Bengaluru: We all love to eat out in restaurants. We consider all aspects before going to hotel from taste to cost to hygiene issue. However, we hardly know how the hotel authorities manage to keep the hotel kitchen.
To get clarity on this, a group of youngsters, who are doing their engineering, want CCTV cameras placed in all hotels. Speaking about this to NewsKarnataka.com, Sajid said, “I along with my friends always used to hang out in a popular hotel (name not revealed). The serving area of hotel has been maintained well. The tastes as well as rates of food were affordable. But three of my friends fell sick on a particular day. Next day, I entered the kitchen of the hotel, with the help of a waiter. I was shocked to find it so dirty. It was not at all clean.”
“When I expressed my shock to the waiter, he laughed it aside and said that this was one of the cleanest kitchen compared to other hotels. I was risking my heath eating in these hotels all these years. There will always be a ‘No Admission’ board on kitchen door. But customers should know how the kitchen is maintained. I request all the hotel owners to place CCTV cameras in their kitchens, so that customer knows what is happening,” he added.
When we asked a few people regarding this, almost all wanted CCTV cameras inside the hotel kitchen. Commenting on this, Nagarjun Shetty, owner of a popular restaurant in Bengaluru said, “It is a great idea. This will help the hotel owners also, as they cannot be in the hotel always. They can check the wastage and efficiency of staff as well. I will be installing CCTV camera soon in my hotel kitchen. We are surviving due to customers and their health is our priority.”
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has also given green signal for this and has already sent a notice to all restaurants to install CCTV cameras inside their kitchens along with a TV monitor in the seating area that allows customers to see in real-time how their food is being prepared.
With notices being sent, we will have to see whether the hotel owners install the CCTV in Bengaluru. BBMP officials have asked all the hotels to install CCTV cameras by October end. However as the time frame is small, they may postpone it by a month.
This is a good move by BBMP, which will surely benefit everyone involved. When it comes to health, no risk should be taken.