Hotel licence cancelled for adding beef

Hyderabad, Mar 13: Andhra Pradesh Minister for Municipal Administration Koneru Ranga Rao today said the state government had cancelled the licence of a hotel in the Charminar area of the city for adding beef to goat meat in dishes.

Replying to a question by P Shankar Rao (Congress), T Padma Rao (TRS) and G Kishan Reddy (BJP) during the Question Hour, the Minister said food samples collected from the hotel on January seven 2006 were sent for analysis.

The report confirmed the adding meat with goat mutton. Following this, the hotel's licence was cancelled and prosecution launched.

The Minister said the health authorities of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad had also conducted surprise raids and lifted non-vegetarian food samples from various hotels for analysis.

He said the reports were awaited.

The Minister said that an inquiry was also ordered to know if any officials were also involved and stern action would be taken against those found to have colluded with hotel managements.

Earlier Shankar Rao and Kishan Reddy demanded the constitution of a House Committee to go into food adulteration.

While denying that there was need for a House Committee, the Minister said municipal officials regularly visited hotels and sent samples for analysis.

To this, the members said even in the hotel at Charminar, the incident was brought to notice of the municipal authorities after BJP workers caught the staff buying beef.

UNI