Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Jalal Ahmed in a meeting at the CMM court on July 3 ordered the magistrates concerned and health inspector of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to start the food drive again.

Ten senior assistant secretaries have been given the power of a magistrate to lead the drives and they have already taken the responsibility.

On the first day of the drive, the court fined a diagnostic centre at Mohammadpur for using expired saline and 're agent' while several restaurants at Dhanmandi and Kawrwan Bazar and some fast food shops at Bailey Road were also fined for various reasons including unhygienic condition.

However, talking to Star City the owners of some restaurants in the city expressed their frustrations over the mobile court drive.

"In the name of the drive, mobile courts often harass us and charge huge fines showing silly causes, which hampers our business." an employee of Hotel Cafe Baghdad on Topkhana Road alleged. "Last month members of a mobile court demanded Tk 1,00,000 as fine without any reason," he said.

A staff of a well-known restaurant in Gulshan-1 area said every month they pay the inspectors of a mobile court certain amount of money so that no action is taken against them.

Refuting the allegation, Shafique Anwar, a magistrate involved in the mobile court drive, said, "We haven't received any specific allegation so far. It is a propaganda against the mobile courts to stop our activities."

"There is no scope of such irregularities as the higher authorities are monitoring the drives regularly," said a newly appointed magistrate, on condition anonymity, when asked about the allegation.

In spite of receiving huge support from the consumers, the mobile court drives were postponed twice in the past. The mobile court had first started operations in April 2005. But after six months, it was suspended. In December 2005 the drive started again and continued for one month.

After two months' interval, the drive started in March this year when 12 mobile courts were in action to conduct the operations.

During the previous drives, employees of different residential hotels, restaurants and biscuit factories in the city attacked the members of some mobile courts and assaulted them.

On April 16, employees of Nabisco Biscuit and Bread Factory in Tejgaon Commercial Area assaulted the mobile court members during a drive. Similar incident took place on May 17 when a mobile court conducted a drive in Nazirabazar under Kotowali Police Station.

On May 21, some employees of different residential hotels and restaurants of Topkhana Road attacked the members of a mobile court during a raid. After the incident the drive against adulterators was postponed.

Another source who was present in the meeting at CMM court on July 3 said the CMM expressed his dissatisfaction over the Topkhana Road incident and asked all mobile court members to handle such situation tactfully.