NEW DELHI: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking directions to L-G Anil Baijal to allow hotels and weekly markets in the city. Various hotel, guest house owners and weekly market traders of Delhi demanded a reversal of the L-G’s order of not allowing them to open under ‘Unlock 3’.
Sisodia highlighted that almost 8 per cent of Delhi’s economy is associated with hotels. “The Delhi government will again send a proposal to the L-G to allow the opening of hotels, I request you to direct L-G not to stop this proposal and allow the implementation of the orders given by the chief minister immediately,” said Sisodia in his letter to Shah.
Hotel owners said that over the last four months they have incurred huge losses due to the pandemic. They further stated that given a decrease in the number of fresh cases it is about time that they are allowed to function again. “Our small budget hotels are facing a huge crisis because of the lockdown. It is becoming very difficult to survive without the functioning of our business.
The L-G should reverse his decision and the government should give us provide us some form of financial relief given the current scenario,” said Jagpreet Arora, president of Karol Bagh guest house welfare association. According to business owners in the hospitality sector, even though hotels remained shut, water and electricity charges have been levied on them.
The Delhi Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association (DHROA) has also demanded that they should be provided with 80 per cent of tax relief on electricity bills levied on them during lockdown phase. The AAP government had earlier ordered for the functioning of hotels as per the guidelines issued by the Central government concerning ‘Unlock 3’. But a day later, L-G Baijal, who is the chairman of State Disaster Management Authority reversed the order.