Srinagar: It has been four months but the Kashmir administration is yet to pay the hotels which were used for quarantine of Covid-19 patients and suspects.
Abdul Wahid, president of Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Owners Federation, told Kashmir Reader that the administration used the services of 144 hotels for about two months to house Covid suspects. None of these hotels, he said, has been paid.
“We offered our hotels at a time when the administration was not sure how to respond to the Covid pandemic. On their word we agreed to provide our services, but they have not kept their word,” he said.
Wahid said that hoteliers have raised bills many a time before the administration, only to get assurances that the bills will be paid.
“The last time we were told that we will get it on Eid-ul-Fitr, and now it is Eid-ul-Azha, two and a half months later, and yet there is no word about the payments,” Wahid said.
Kashmir Reader has learnt that about Rs 30-Rs 50 crore is the amount the administration owes to the hoteliers, who have been under financial distress for a year now. Their hotels were shut last year when the Government of India asked all tourists to leave Kashmir days before abrogating Article 370 on August 5.
“From the last week of March to the 25th of May, our hotels were used by the administration until it was decided to charge money from those who wished to be put under quarantine at hotels. Since May 25, we have been charging as per the government rates,” said Wahid.
Another hotelier, who wished not to be named, told Kashmir Reader that the government’s withholding of payments is cruel at a time when hotels were suffering losses. “This should have been a consideration for the administration. We have expenses of lakhs on electricity and employees, food, etc,” he said.
Neither Divisional Commissioner Kashmir PK Pole nor Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Shahid Choudhary were available for the comment.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz