Restaurant’s licence likely to be revoked
KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) is likely to revoke the licence of Raj’s Banana Leaf Restaurant in Bangsar after a video showing its workers washing dishes in a puddle of murky water went viral.
DBKL Health and Environment Department director Dr Noor Akma Shabudin said even though a showcause letter was issued yesterday for temporary closure over hygiene violations, she will be pushing for the place to be closed down.
“I was not at the site and have not seen the report, but I have already spoken to DBKL’s head of licensing department and I will be recommending that their licence be revoked,” she said.
About 20 officers from the department, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya Health Department and Labour Department of the Human Resource Ministry conducted a twohour inspection of the premises before issuing a closure notice under the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur Food Establishment bylaws 2016.
The restaurant drew the ire of social media users after a 30second video showed three of its employees squatting at the back of the restaurant, scrubbing and rinsing plates in what appears to be a puddle of water in a pothole next to a drain.
DBKL Health and Environment Department deputy director Chandrakant Patel said the restaurant, which had a Grade A rating, did not have proper washing areas.
When asked how it got a Grade A rating despite failing to install basic cleaning facilities, Chandrakant said: “We are looking into everything one by one and the owner will be held accountable.”
According to Chandrakant, initial investigations showed that the five workers seen in the video had only just arrived from Bangladesh to work.
The workers were also interviewed by Labour Department officers for documentation.
The Health Ministry issued three food handling notices to Raj’s Banana Leaf Restaurant owner for not having antityphoid vaccinations for its workers and for not attending food handling training.
The notices were also issued as the restaurant was not registered with the ministry and the premises failed to be pestfree, said Health directorgeneral Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He added from 2016 until yesterday, 289,919 checks were carried out on food premises nationwide.
Of the figure, 5,587 (2%) of the premises, including restaurants and food outlets, were found to be unclean and closed under Section 11 of the Food Act 1983, he said.
Meanwhile, Raj’s Banana Leaf Restaurant refuted messages circulating on social media that national badminton star Datuk Lee Chong Wei is linked to it.
“While we acknowledge that Datuk Lee Chong Wei was previously a director of the company, he had resigned from his directorship prior to the said incident and he was in any event not involved in the daytoday operations of our restaurants,” said the restaurant in a Facebook post yesterday.
The restaurant added that the individuals named in the viral messages are not and have not been associated with the shareholders of its company and restaurants.
The restaurant management said it took full responsibility of the May 28 incident.
“Once again, we sincerely apologise to all our customers and the public for our failings and we have taken immediate action to address and rectify these deficiencies and shortcomings in our operations,” the statement read.