Rourkela: The local civic body plans to rank city restaurants on the basis of their cleanliness.

"Swachhata being an integral part of the smart city project, we are going to rank the restaurants of the city," said city health officer Basant Kumar Mishra.

The Rourkela Municipal Corporation recently held a meeting with the representatives of the Rourkela Hotel and Restaurant Owners' Association to discuss the issue.

"The sanitation parameters will be based on kitchen, floor of the kitchen, dining room, the lavatory, wash basin, cleanliness of the tables and chairs and the washing areas," said Mishra.

Rourkela will complete one year of its smart city status within a month. "We will honour the cleanest hotels to celebrate this," said Mishra, adding that the hotel owners' association was very enthusiastic and "assured us about their fullest cooperation as it will help in their business".

Mishra also said: "We have informed them that from December 31, the civic body is not going to procure their waste and they will have to take care of their own waste. They were advised to initiate measures to dump waste at a designated spot. Civic officials will regularly visit the restaurants to assess their cleanliness."

President of hotel owners' association Aditya Mohapatra welcomed move. "This is a very good initiative," he said.

Road blockade

People of five panchayat areas staged a road blockage at Sartaguda village protesting against dumping of garbage of Phulbani town near Sartaguda village. Traffic between Phulbani and Gochapada was affected by the blockade.