GUWAHATI, May 16 - The Kamrup Metro district administration has constituted a team comprising officials from various departments to check commercial establishments, including shopping malls and high-end hotels, to ensure that such establishments are adhering to different norms and rules including those of basic safety measures, labour laws and the Essential Commodities Act, besides having special provisions for senior citizens, women and children.
The team will be headed by circle officers and circle officers (A) of the district who have been tasked to check such establishments within their respective jurisdictions. It also has officials from the police department, Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), labour department, legal metrology department, food safety department and food and civil supply department.
It will check commercial establishments to find out their adherence to and compliance with a number of parameters like sanitation and hygiene, parking capacity and provision of drinking water facilities.
The officials have also been assigned to find out provisions for specially-abled persons, women, children and senior citizens maintained by such establishments.
They will also look into compliance with provisions of the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), fire safety, electrical safety, lift safety and other emergency provisions.
In addition, maintenance of labour laws, provisions of weights and measures, food safety norms and adherence to the Essential Commodities Act 1955, and calibration of weights and measures devices will also be looked into by the team.
An order to this effect has been passed by Dr M Angamuthu, District Magistrate of Kamrup Metro.
�Commercial establishments, shopping malls, four and five star category hotels do not maintain the basic requirements like sanitation and hygiene, drinking water facilities, sufficient parking facilities and other safety measures like fire safety, electrical safety and other emergency provisions for tackling any eventuality. It has been observed that such commercial establishments do not even keep provisions for differently abled persons depriving them from visiting such places. Moreover, no special arrangements are made for women, children and senior citizens,� he said.
The official added, �Various shopping malls and commercial establishments and hotels do not maintain food safety norms and do not adhere to the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act 1955. It has also been noticed that most of these establishments are not in conformity with the calibration of devices as specified by the weights and measures department in accordance with The Standards of Weights and Measures Act 1976 and also do not adhere to the provisions of Employment and Labour Relation Act 2004.�
He said that there is an immediate necessity to constitute a team comprising officials from various departments to check the commercial establishments, shopping malls, four and five star category hotels in the district.
�All circle officers have been directed to take necessary help from the departments concerned as per their requirements as and when required,� Dr Angamuthu added.
