Officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Thursday issued a fine of Rs 5000 to Raja Vari Ruchulu hotel in Kukatpally, after they received a complaint that a customer found an iron wire in his food.
The complainant, Srinivas Bellam, said that he had ordered chicken biryani and curd rice on January 15, from the hotel, via Zomato. While eating the food, he found something odd in his mouth, and found it to be an iron wire when he pulled it out.
He clicked a picture and took to Twitter to highlight the issue.
@zomatocare @ZomatoIN Festival gift from Rajavaari Ruchulu #Kukatpally #Chicken #Biryani with iron wire flavour @TSConsumers No words to say here. @AMOH_KUKATPALLY @zckukatpally @GHMCOnline pic.twitter.com/t4N51sZ6Cl
— Srinivas Bellam (@SrinivasBellam) January 15, 2020
Following this, V Mamatha, GHMC zonal commissioner of Kukatpally, took note of the incident and sent a team to the restaurant to inspect its premises and issue a fine for the lapse.
The Telangana State Consumers Information and Redressal Centre also took note of the incident and asked Srinivas to file a complaint with them.
Taking to Twitter, the Redressal Centre said, "Hi. This should not happen. Please visit our office during office hours with all necessary documents. For more assistance, please call our toll-free number 180042500333."
Zomato's customer support team has also since apologised to Srinivas and offered him a discount coupon, Srinivas said.
In October last year, Paradise and Cafe Bahar, two of the most popular biryani joints in Hyderabad, were booked by the GHMC and issued a fine of Rs 1 lakh each, after a raid conducted at branches of both eateries found them to be maintaining unhygienic standards.
Officials had visited the kitchen of Paradise in Secunderabad after a customer complained about finding hair in the biryani that they ordered at the SD Road branch, the first ever outlet of the restaurant chain.
Earlier this month, the Telangana High Court had pulled up the state government and pointed out that it had only 25 Food Safety Officers (FSOs) for the entire state with a population of nearly four crore people.