Public areas not health certified

JAKARTA: Only about 20 percent of 3,200 public places, including hotels, restaurants and schools in East Jakarta had certified sanitation, an official revealed on Saturday.

Coordinator of public places monitoring of the East Jakarta health agency, Utomo Sukotjo, said that only two of five star- rated hotels in the area had obtained health certificates.

"Maybe the operators of the public places don't think it's necessary to obtain such certificates because no one has filed complaints against them," he was quoted by Tempointeraktif.com as saying.

Utomo said applicants should first have checks carried out by the health officials. For restaurants, a check, which generally includes a food hygiene, dinner ware, illumination, sound pollution inspection, would only cost the operator Rp 750,000, he said.

"If the results are good, the restaurant will be given the certificate and put under our monitoring," he said. -- JP