The Bengaluru South City Corporation has ordered the maximum penalty against Rewards agency, the food supplier for the Indira Canteen at Jayanagar Public Hospital, after an inspection found repeated violations of the prescribed menu and complaints about food quality and cleanliness.
Commissioner K.N. Ramesh directed officials to issue a notice to the agency and deduct the cost of the missing food from its bills. The action followed a surprise inspection of the canteen in Pattabhiramanagar ward on Saturday, according to a report by The Hindu.
During the inspection, the agency was found to have supplied only bisi bele bath, although the prescribed menu for the day included rice, sambar, palya and payasa. Officials told the Commissioner that the menu had not been followed for the previous four to five days.
The prescribed menu is a basic service requirement for Indira Canteens, which provide subsidised meals to residents and visitors, including people using public hospitals and other civic facilities. In this case, the municipal action links the supplier’s billing to the actual food supplied by directing officials to recover the cost of the missing dishes.
The Commissioner also examined the canteen’s complaint register. The register contained complaints related to food quality and cleanliness, adding service conditions to the menu violations identified during the inspection. The report does not specify the number of complaints or the dates on which they were recorded.
Mr. Ramesh also pulled up canteen supervisors for communicating complaints to senior officials through text messages instead of submitting written reports. He said written reporting was necessary so that complaints could be formally examined and action could be taken.
The episode places responsibility on both the contracted food supplier and the local monitoring system. The agency is expected to respond to the notice and face the penalty ordered by the corporation, while the canteen’s supervisory staff are expected to follow the formal reporting process for complaints. The supplied report does not state the monetary value of the penalty or the date by which the agency must respond.
