Commissioner of Food Safety chews eateries and watering holes

Among the great heroes of The Mahabharatha, Karna occupies a pride of place for his fierce loyalty to Duryodhana as well as unostentatious and unstinted charitable acts. His namesake and Telangana’s new Commissioner of Food Safety R V Karnan, however, seems to have a Bhima-like appetite for chewing errant pubs, hotels, and eateries that do not comply with prescribed safety and hygiene standards. He has them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food for thought that he and his team have been giving to raise awareness following a slew of raids on eateries and watering holes has nudged the Hyderabad chapter of the National Resaturants Association of India to form a Task Force and moot hygiene rating for these establishments. Thanks to these raids, even some media-shy bureaucrats have become vocal. That is not all. Netizens, having seen viral post-raid videos of their beloved adda, have gone gaga over Karnan’s required recipe for wholesome food and hailed him as the new food blogger in Telangana. A little bird told us that Karnan wants only his work to speak and that he is working relentlessly to put the system on autopilot so that, regardless of the incumbent Commissioner, the good work continues. Interestingly, the distasteful bits of these raids have reached not just Tollywood but also Bollywood stars, some of whom own swanky hotels. For the likes of Karnan, even stardust is not OK in eatables.