The country's restaurant owners on Thursday urged the government to form a task force or commission to monitor the restaurants aimed at reducing harassments created by different government agencies in the name of monitoring.
They said that restaurants are now being monitored by a dozen government agencies without proper coordination among themselves and thus resulting in an unwanted harassments inflicted upon the owners.
The Bangladesh Restaurant Owners Association (BROA) came up with the observations at a press briefing at Nasrul Hamid Auditorium of the capital's Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU).
"There is none to look into our problems as we are being harassed by 12 government agencies," BROA Secretary General Imran Hasan told the media while reading a written speech.
"We call upon the government to form either a taskforce or commission immediately to help get rid us from unwanted harassments by the agencies' officials," he said.
He warned that, if the taskforce or commission is not formed then they (owners) have no way but to shut down their businesses.
Elaborating about the alleged harassments, he said each of the 12 government agencies during their drives interfered undesirably with their businesses.
He alleged that the monitoring teams of different government agencies used to look into the restaurants owners businesses negatively during their drives.
He said that the restaurant owners were being punished with fines by the monitoring teams or mobile courts even for a minor fault.
Mr Hasan said that a section of officials, during their drives seemed to be more enthusiastic about imposing financial penalty on the restaurant owners than considering applying other forms of rules.
He also alleged that during the raids, the officials also use to resort to other forms of punishment, including threatening them with harsher actions, which have impacted their business adversely and put on risk the credibility of their businesses.
The BROA leader said that high prices of essential commodities coupled with harassments by the concerned government departments in the name of realising value added tax and other duties may force them to shut their businesses.
Noting that about 95 per cent workers employed in the restaurants sector are either unskilled or not properly educated, he urged the government to take steps for imparting them training or giving them education.
"So, give them (workers) proper training and provide us (owners) standard operating procedure (SOP) to improve the standard of menus," he said.
He also said that imposing fines by mobile courts or putting handcuffs on the owners' hands will not solve any problems.
The BROA secretary general also expressed the fear that like previous years, the government's monitoring teams or mobile courts might come down heavily on the restaurant owners during the upcoming Ramadan month.
"We (restaurant owners) promise to maintain utmost caution while preparing safe and hygiene Iftar, Shehri and other food items during Ramadan," he mentioned.
He called upon the government not to harass the restaurant owners or create more trouble for them in the name of enforcing laws through the mobile court during the month of fasting.
Noting that restaurant was one of the badly affected sectors during the coronavirus outbreak, he lamented that they have not yet received any financial assistance from the government despite incurring huge economic losses during the pandemic-induced lockdown or restrictions.
He also urged the government to provide them SME loans with low interest rate.
President of BROA Osman Gani called upon the government to save them from the harassments caused to them by a section of government officials.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com
