Lockdowns have crippled us, says Hoteliers
Threaten to move SC in case govt fails to announce ‘package’
Srinagar: The J&K Hoteliers Club (JKHC) on Friday sought “immediate assistance” for the survival of the tourism sector in the union territory.
The hoteliers’ body said it would be forced to approach the Supreme Court in case the Centre failed to address their concerns.
“The tourism industry of Jammu & Kashmir first needs to survive, and then we need to revive. We need immediate assistance to prevent the major job losses in the tourism sector. But it appears unlikely that the government in Delhi will announce anything specific and tangible for us,” JKHC chairman Mushtaq Chaya said in a statement.
“….under these circumstances we are left with only option of approaching the Hon’ble Supreme Court for contemplation and assistance packages to J&K Hospitality Industry…,” read the statement.
“Hoteliers Club has started its exercise for filing the case and in that direction a virtual baseline survey of all tourism establishments of J&K will be conducted through online link that will be shared with all stakeholders to fill in the details and a composite document will be framed for suitable accurate action,” the statement added.
The tourism sector in the Valley was badly hit in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year. The sector took yet another blow this year due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
“The business at our hotels is at a virtual standstill from last more than one year and we are continuously struggling and have suffered massively from past more than one year, and thereby we are taking a difficult but necessary step in the form of such action and major salary cuts and layoffs…,” stated Chaya.
“If the state administration is really concerned about Tourism Sector then at their own level they can consider the complete waiver of all fixed electricity, water usage and other utility charges from August 2019 along with refund of GST for the financial year 2019-20 and 2020-21 collected from all hoteliers, guest houses, travel agents, tour operators, restaurants and the likes,” he added.
The JK Hoteliers Club also condemned the “high-handed behaviour of administration for forcibly occupying hotels for quarantine purposes”.
“Under section 65 of Power of Requisition of resources of Disaster Management Act the government have to go for requisition order in writing and it is deplorable that no such requisition was made and instead some officials were behaving in an irresponsible and high-handed manner and takeover our hotels forcibly,” the JKHC statement alleged. (PTI)
Press Trust of India
