Restaurant owners keep fingers crossed

Restaurant owners are worried,particularly as they do not have enough cold storage space like big hotels do.

We cater to customers on a daily basis,where the focus is on freshness of products, says Rajendra Kelshikar,owner of Polka Dots restaurant in Aundh and Kalyani Nagar. He hoped the strike will be over in a few days.

He says most restaurants in the city,including his own,are usually programmed to deal with emergencies. Most restaurants generally stock up ration for about a week or so. So even in this case,I plan to stock up for 10 days at the most. The catch is that we cant store vegetables or other products which are to be consumed fresh,for long, he says,adding that he will store essentials like sugar,rice and maida for the time being.

Ashok Pansare,manager of Sharvaree,a restaurant in Shivajinagar,says they are mostly worried about supply of fresh vegetables and milk products.

LBT is levied on entry of goods into a municipal area for consumption,use or sale. The traders and retailers have been claiming the new system was complicated and unjust. They claimed traders will end up paying double or triple of the octroi charged earlier.

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