Maha CM Gives Nod To Re-open Restaurants; Asks Restaurateurs To Follow ‘My Family, My Responsibility’

Mumbai, September: A delegation of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) met the Hon. Chief Minister (CM) of Maharashtra – Shri Uddhav Thackeray today to discuss the way forward for the hotel and restaurants industry in the State. In the meeting, the Hon. CM has in principle agreed to allow restaurants to re-open in the first week of the coming month. The HRAWI, which has been advocating the reopening of restaurants in the State has welcomed the decision and has thanked the CM for understanding the plight of the restaurant players. The CM advised the Hospitality industry to follow the Maharashtra Government’s ‘My Family, My Responsibility’ campaign to protect its own people as well as its customers’ from COVID19.

“We thank the Hon Chief Minister – Shri Uddhav Thackeray ji, who today assured us that Restaurants will be allowed to reopen in the first week of October 2020. The Hon. CM has also agreed to favourably consider HRAWI’s petition for the waiver of excise license fees for a period of 6 months, the duration for which establishments were required to be kept shut. Also, the deadline for deferment of payments towards the first installment of the Excise License fee has been extended to 30th September which will bring restaurateurs big relief,” says Mr. Sherry Bhatia, President, HRAWI.

HRAWI had also petitioned to the State Excise department for a rollback in the 15 per cent increase in the fees for the year. Other than this, the Association had been demanding a complete fee waiver for the duration of the lockdown on restaurants.

“In our meeting, the CM was sympathetic towards the restaurant players for not being allowed to operate for over six months. He has indicated that his Government will mostly allow the reopening of restaurants but he has stressed on restaurants’ responsibility towards their customers’ health and safety after they reopen for business. We have informed the Hon. CM that HRAWI along with the FSSAI has spearheaded the creation of SOPs for the restaurants. We have assured him that we have taken into consideration all possible aspects of operations in a restaurant and provisioned safety measures down to a T. We are glad that the Government has shown trust in us and we will keep it,” says Mr. Pradeep Shetty, Sr. Vice President, HRAWI.

On the subject of allowing restaurants to operate in limited capacities, the Hon. CM expressed openness to be accommodating. He stressed on the objective of safety and declared that his Government will be flexible in allowing restaurants to take in as many patrons as it can so long as it maintains all SOPs and safety norms.

“Quite a few restaurants have open spaces and others have large interiors. We were of the opinion that the number of customers allowed in restaurants should not be fixed across all restaurants but it should be based on the size of each property. The Hon. CM has echoed our thought and has allowed us to operate and allow guests to occupy tables based on the space of a restaurant’s premise. This too is a much welcome decision and we are grateful to the CM for being receptive to our argument on the capacity utilization at restaurants. Our members are trained under FSSAI’s FoSTaC programme COVID19 care. We assure the Government and our guests that we will take care of them like we would take care of our own families,” concludes Mr. Bhatia.

Comments

0