The government, this far, has been following the SOPs and the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from time to time. However, the government, on Tuesday surprisingly announced that all hotels that want to restart will have to seek permission from the Department of Tourism. Though this will be done online and sans any fees, the move appears to defy logic.
For starters, the move to restart hotels does not make sense for the present as the State is reeling under the COVID-19 threat seeing a steep rise in cases in the past two weeks and there is no way the government can restart tourism in the present circumstances. Inviting tourists at this juncture could only be suicidal for the State, which is struggling to manage only a few hundred cases of COVID. Imagine if the cases rise appreciably? The government has no Plan B in an event cases rise like in the neighbouring States of Karnataka and Maharashtra. Ministers are on record saying asymptomatic positive persons must stay at home and not be admitted hospitals. Is this an admission that the State government is unable to take in more patients at COVID facilities.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
The chief minister must also appreciate that most of the cases detected in the State are from incoming travellers, and as such any move to restart the tourism industry as of now could be termed a misadventure. Secondly, the move to ask for registration of the hotel is also meaningless as hoteliers already have the required licences, including from the Fire, Panchayat, FDA, Health, Tourism departments.
In the last two months, after the first lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there were several businesses which restarted but none of them were asked for any NOC or any permission from the local bodies or the State government departments. Why then is the hotel industry being singled out? There were no permissions asked from wholesalers or retail liquor shops nor from restaurants or malls, which thousands of people visit, so why this special treatment to the hoteliers?
Tourism Director Menino D’Souza and GTDC Managing Director Nikhil Desai said the intention behind the applications was to see the preparedness of the hotels before restarting the tourism industry. Also that they wanted to check how many hotels are ready before the Standard Operating Procedure for tourism revival is in place in the State. The hotel industry will be severely hit after the exodus of migrants who are mainly the support staff. However, if the hotelier has a licence and wants to start a hotel on his own, why does the government ask for another application and permission from the department?
The government has said that it will give permissions in phases so does that mean that hotels with political connections will get permission first? Why complicate this further and use government resources in such non-essential matters? Did the government ask restaurant owners whether they were prepared to start and do they have the manpower? The answer is no. It’s simple logic that if a hotelier does not have the staff or the premises is under renovation he or she will not begin hotel operations till he is ready, then why create unnecessary hassles? What is important is that the tourism industry has been hit by the COVID pandemic very badly, and as per the insiders there are many hotels which may not open even six months after the lockdown ends as there may be no demand for rooms.
