Health ministry team hanging a banner reading "This restaurant has been cracked down due to breach of health and legal regulations," in front of Roma Restaurant in Suleimaniya./PRESS PHOTO
People no longer trust eating out
Restaurants which were once favourite places for spending time with friends and family are being forced to close. This recent increase in the forced closure of restaurants is mainly due to poor sanitary conditions being discovered on the premises.
Zana Ali, 27, loves food and was a keen restaurant goer until he was poisoned twice from eating spoiled food.
He now seems to have lost his trust in restaurants, especially after watching many televised reports in which inspectors from Kurdistan's Ministry of Health, Ministry of Municipality, Erbil governorate and directorate of police sought for expired and spoiled foods in restaurants as well as checking sanitary conditions.
"I am definitely shocked by the reports I have so far seen in television. I find it hard to believe that the place I often ate food from was that dirty and did not act upon the ministry of health's regulations," he said.
He added that after losing trust in restaurants he now prefers to eat his food at home with his family.
Nadir Rosti, Kurdistan Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism's spokesman in an exclusive interview told The Globe that during the past six months some 61 restaurants and tourism places have been shut down in all the three provinces of Kurdistan.
"Some 217 restaurants and tourism places have been fined with an amount of money and 200 others have been warned to make sanitary conditions better."
According to the figures revealed by Directorate of Tourism Affairs there are 153 restaurants and fast-food shops in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan's second biggest city , which have taken license from the directorate. In the first half of the year, of which 120 restaurants have been fined and 31 others have been closed for awhile because of violating rules and sanitary conditions.
In accordance with the Ministry's regulations if any restaurant is fined twiceits license will be suspended forever.
There is a committee in all the three provinces of Kurdistan whose main mission is to tackle violations. The violations are classified as overcharging and sanitary conditions.
Acommittee member, who spoke in condition of anonymity, has confirmed that none of the members waive any kind of violation.
"We are a committee of five and never decide at random, instead we decide upon the rules."
He remarked that the mayor and governor of each province supervise the process of monitoring restaurants and tourism places directly.
"They take every complaint of the fined places into consideration," said he, adding that the system of penalty is organized by the directorate. The committee member said: "for instance, if a certain kind of a food is indicated to charge 10,000 IDQ ($8 approximately) in a one-star restaurant, the rest should also take 10,000IDQ.Otherwise, they will be fined."
However, some restaurant owners are criticizing the process of monitoring and asked the KRG to get in the way and halt the process. They claim that the only KRG institution which can do this kind of sanitary inspection is Syndicate of Restaurants and Motels.
Besides, a restaurant owner does not conceal that prices willvary from one restaurant to another. He told The Globe that some of the owners abuse the regulations and this leads to making the rules tighter.
