Telangana to announce culinary policy soon

Hyderabad: Telangana will soon come up with a ‘culinary policy’ to promote the state through cookery, festivals and culture, an official said today.

“Telangana will be the first state in the country to announce a culinary policy. The policy has been sent to the Chief Minister for approval and may be announced in November,” state tourism secretary Burra Venkatesham said here.

“The objective is to promote our state through its culinary arts, festivals and culture. We are also working on exclusive ‘Telangana Restaurants’ by (involving) the private sector,” an official release quoted him as saying.

The proposed policy contemplates tax incentives for these restaurants for five years. In case of the restaurants outside the state, there will be cash incentives, Venkatesham said.

“We would like to see exclusive Telangana Restaurants come up all over the world,” he said, adding 99 per cent of the population of Telangana are non-vegetarian.

Earlier, Venkatesham and Pervaram Ramulu, chairman of Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation, presented the ‘Best Restaurant in Telangana Award’, by the tourism department, to Karampodi restaurant.

On October 8, ‘Maha Bathukamma Festival’ will be held at Lal Bahadur Stadium here, where 10,000 women will participate, Venkatesham said.

Ramulu said the festival will be used to promote the state in a big way.