CHANDIGARH: As 20,000 people are expected to return back to the state in coming days including 3000 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), some 7000 hotel and institutional rooms have been arranged by the Punjab Government across the state till date where these NRIs will be quarantined but they will have to pay for their stay which will be ranging between Rs 500 to Rs 7,000 per day depending upon the accommodation.
Talking with New Indian Express, Rahul Bhandari, Secretary NRI Affairs, Punjab said, "The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has told the state government that NRIs will have to be quarantined in hotel and institutional rooms across the state when they return back and they shouldn't be allowed home quarantine. Thus across the state, except two districts of Mansa and Taran Taran, the government has arranged hotel rooms after the concerned deputy commissioners were told to identify hotels and arrange accommodation fixing an amicable rate with the hoteliers. Besides all the guidelines issued by the state health department has to be followed during the quarantine. If any person returns from another state within the country he or she will be allowed home quarantine."
"Thus till date around 7000 hotel and institutional rooms have been arranged in the state of these around 3,750 are hotel rooms and rest are rooms in institutions. The tariff of hotel room begins from Rs 1000 and depends on how much one can afford and the charges of rooms in institutions is around Rs 500 per day. If need be more rooms will be identified and arranged,’ he said.
"The NRIs have started coming as a day before a flight from Dubai carrying 175 NRIs landed at Amritsar and in the coming days more flights are expected," Bhandari said.
As the state government has given very stringent conditions on how to run the hotels where these NRIs will be quarantined, the hoteliers are now in a dilemma what to do as they say that they decided to open up their hotels after about two months as social responsibility. Punjab Hotel Association President Satish Arora says, "In some 150 hotels across the state 3750 rooms have been arranged where these NRIs will be quarantined for a period of two weeks. The price range is between Rs 1000 to Rs 7000
per day with all three meals depending upon the hotel and how much one can afford. The hoteliers were not initially ready but we persuaded them to open their properties and presently the hotels are operating with just 35 per cent staff. Now the state government has issued guidelines and put stringent conditions which we cannot meet at all."
"We have been told to arrange a doctor who will check the quarantined people in the hotel once a day and report to the nodal officer of the district and that expense has to be borne by us. We also have to tie-up with laboratories for testing and proper disposal of garbage which is collected from our facility as it will be treated as medical waste so proper segregation in different bags is necessary. Every time an NRI comes to the hotel, it will be sanitized, the hotel staff has to be given PPE kits, gloves and masks. Also if any quarantined person runs away from the hotel it will be our responsibility. No relatives can meet quarantined people. If any of these guidelines is violated then the hotel owner will be booked under section 188 of IPC (disobedience to order of public servant) as per the provisions of epidemic diseases act 1897. These are biased guidelines which cannot be implemented practically as our staff has no prior training in these, said Arora.
He questioned has the government in their government hospitals and quarantine facilities. "They are trying to convert the hotels into hospitals," he said.