Dominos employees booked by Bathinda police for delivering pizzas amid curfew restrictions
Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, May 8
Bathinda police have registered a case against two employees of the food-chain Dominos for violating curfew orders by illegally delivering pizzas in the city.
Police said they got a tip-off that Dominos was delivering pizzas at residences.
Acting on this, police conducted a raid and arrested the manager, Sanjay Kumar of Kamla Nehru Colony and supervising manager, Manish Baghel, resident of DD Mittal Tower.
However, later they were released on bail.
It was learned, that a few dhabas and eating joint owners had approached deputy commissioner, B Srinivasan, requesting permission for allowing the eating joints to provide home delivery in the city, but the DC refused them.
The eating joint owners questioned that if they weren’t allowed home delivery, then why was Dominos delivering.
DC revealed that it was not in his knowledge, and that, he will get it checked. He said it was illegal as no permission was given to any food joint to operate or provide home delivery in the district.
Following this, the police took action against Dominos employees.
Both the employees were booked under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to the life) 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to the life), sections 51, 52 of Disaster Management Act 2005 and section 2 of Epidemic Disease Act, 1897.
It is worth mentioning, that food joint owners are demanding to be permitted to provide home delivery of food items. They claim that they are facing huge losses as work has been down for the last few days.
They continued that they are bearing overhead expenses which include rent, staff salaries, power bills etc.
Moreover, if work did not start soon, then labour would move back to their native place, so it would be difficult to rearrange everything when the food joints would be opened again later.
Food joint owners are also raising the issue, that if community kitchen can be allowed to distribute food in the city, then why can’t food joints with proper hygiene kitchen be allowed to deliver food.
Ashwani Malhotra, an owner of Rasoi Restaurant, said: “District administration should allow eating joints to do the home delivery of the food items as they have the proper hygienic kitchen and it would also help us pay our rent and salaries”.
