Nearly 400 student hostels face food safety crackdown across Gujarat following Surat incident

Gandhinagar, Sep 16 (IANS): The Gujarat government has inspected 386 hostels and canteens across the state as part of a statewide food safety drive launched after a suspected food poisoning incident at a student hostel in Surat, with 194 food samples sent for testing and the licences of two establishments suspended.

Of the 386 facilities inspected so far, 100 are government-run, 71 are semi-government, and 213 are private. The authorities have issued 102 improvement notices, while 18 hostels or canteens voluntarily shut down to undertake cleaning and corrective measures..

Health Minister Praful Pansheriya said the inspections had uncovered unhygienic conditions in the kitchens of several hostels and warned that responsibility would be fixed if students fell ill because of negligence..

Especially when cases of food poisoning occur inside hostels, the complete responsibility lies with the hostel, and such incidents happen because of their serious negligence,” Pansheriya said..He said parents paid fees to place their children in private hostels, while the government incurred expenditure on government hostels, making it the responsibility of hostel management to maintain hygiene and ensure that stale or contaminated food was not served..