Pune: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said his team will probe the incident after a Facebook post by a lady alleged that a homeless child was thrown out of the McDonalds restaurant in Pune.
“I will get back after I enquire into the incident. I don’t have all the pertinent information with me yet,” Fadnavis said.
A McDonalds outlet on JM Road, Pune reportedly denied entry to a street kid, who wanted to have a soft drink at the fast food joint. The woman described the incident in detail in Facebook, who had brought the child with her into the restaurant.
The woman, in her Facebook post, said she, along with some of her friends, had gone to McDonalds and bought themselves Coke floats. When they came out of the restaurant, a poor street kid asked them for some Coke float and the woman decided to buy him a Fanta float.
She also asked the kid whether he would like to stand in line with her. After he agreed and stood in line with her, a worker from the restaurant “came and pushed and threw the kid out”.
Even when the woman told the worker that the kid had come in with her, the worker replied by telling her that “these kind of people are not allowed inside”. The child was forced out of the restaurant but the woman still bought him the Fanta float and gave it to him outside the restaurant, she claimed.
The staff of the JM Road outlet, however, refused to comment on the issue.
This is the second such incident at the outlet, which has been reported in the last six months. In September last year, a group of homeless children had gone to the restaurant for a meal. Although, they had allegedly paid the bill, the staff struck up an argument with the group and insisted that they leave. Officials from Shivaji Nagar police station were forced to intervene and settle the matter.
Such incidents of high-handedness displayed by the restaurant and mall employees have sparked a furore among citizens of Pune.