People gorge on fast food at roadside kiosks in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar: Aug. 1: Health problems have raised an alarm in the capital city as lack of manpower has prevented the Khurda district administration and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) from acting against eateries and kiosks selling substandard or contaminated food.

Khurda district food inspector A.K. Chatterjee admitted staff shortage but said that he was trying to do his best to put a check on stale food with the available resources. Sources in the Capital Hospital said reports of diseases caused by unhygienic food and contaminated water have increased.

“There is nearly 10 per cent increase in the number of patients coming to the hospital with diseases caused by contaminated food and water. Contaminated food can cause diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis and typhoid,” said S.N. Swain, deputy chief medical officer of Capital Hospital. He also advised people to avoid roadside food and drink boiled water in the rainy season.

Most of the people living in the city depend on the roadside eateries. Students of various educational institutes also eat regularly from the temporary kiosks in front of their institutes. “I suffered from dysentry after eating from a roadside eatery at VSS Nagar. The authorities must initiate a drive to check the quality of food served at these kiosks,” said Satyabrat Sahani, a law student of Utkal University.

The Cuttack district administration had already started a drive to check the sale of stale food served at various kiosks in front of the educational institutes of the city. They have also started an awareness campaign on healthy eating habits and maintaining sanitation.

Khurda food inspector Chatterjee said that lack of manpower had been a major impediment in conducting similar drives in the capital city. “We have only one five-member squad to check the quality of street food in the city, which is not sufficient. But, we have been raiding on the roadside eateries,” said Chatterjee.

The BMC sources said that they would shortly launch a drive to check the quality of food in the city.

“The health wing of the corporation will shortly conduct raids on the roadside eateries,” said mayor Anant Narayan Jena.