New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS): The Delhi government on Tuesday discontinued the voluntary scheme of granting approvals to standalone restaurants in the national capial in order to give relief to the industry, especially after economic crisis due to Covid-19 lockdown.

The Tourism Department issued a notification in the wake of a meeting convened by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last month, wherein he directed officials to remove hassles in ease of doing business for restaurant industry in Delhi.

"In terms of a decision taken by the Chief Minister in a meeting dated October 7 regarding ease of doing business for restaurants, the voluntary scheme of granting approval to standalone restaurants implemented by the Tourism Department is hereby discontinued with immediate effect," the order read.

"Before June 2003, the scheme for granting approvals to restaurants was implemented by the Ministry of Tourism on an all-India basis. However, that scheme was discontinued with effect from June 30, 2003, and the states asked to formulate their own guidelines if they wished to implement the scheme."

The scheme was adopted by the Delhi government's Department of Tourism the same year, and formally launched in 2004 for all restaurants with more than 30 seats.

Various reviews and reconsiderations were done by the Tourism Department over the years on the request of restaurant associations, the government said.

Kejriwal ordered the removal of the voluntary scheme owing to Covid-induced circumstances.

On October 7, Kejriwal met with a delegation of the ational Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), wherein he directed several Ministers and top officials of various departments and agencies to remove the hassles faced by the restaurant industry in Delhi.

In the meeting, various decisions were taken for the economic revival of the hospitality industry in the national capital.

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