Congress, BJP trade barbs as HC order closure of 18 HPTDC hotels
Laying the blame on the previous BJP government for their failure to ensure the upkeep of the properties, the Congress said the saffron party’s leaders and workers blatantly misused the tourism hotels
The Himachal Pradesh high court has directed Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) to close 18 “loss-making” hotels with immediate effect, sparking a war of words between the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The directions were issued by Justice Ajay Mohan Goel on Tuesday while hearing a petition related to retired employees of the corporation not being given financial benefits. The court has asked the HPTDC managing director to ensure compliance with the orders to close these hotels by November 25.
Notably, the HPTDC operates a total of 56 hotels in the state, many of which have been running in losses for many years. The corporation has also in the past had difficulties to pay salaries and pensions and the matter of service benefits of pensioners is also pending in court.
Laying the blame on the previous BJP government for their failure to ensure the upkeep of the properties, the Congress said the saffron party’s leaders and workers blatantly misused the tourism hotels. They added that it was during the BJP’s tenure in office that the debt mounted, pushing the HPTDC in loss.
Hitting out at the BJP, deputy chief whip Kewal Singh Pathania said, “The order of closure of hotels was the result of reckless spending of the BJP government. However, the present government will make sure that skeletal staff which was necessary for the upkeep of the property is retained and the excess staff is transferred to other tourism hotels.”
Party MLA Ajay Solanki, meanwhile, said, “Profit and loss cannot be judged merely in terms of occupancy as there are other many factors that need to be taken into consideration, including, income from restaurants, online advance bookings of HPTDC units for wedding events and other functions etc.”
Congress claimed that the HPTDC suffered a cumulative loss of ₹49 crore in 2019-20 under the BJP term, which mounted to ₹50 crore 2020-21 further escalated to ₹49.96 crore and in 2021-22 it mounted to ₹51.98 crore. The party reminded the BJP that the present state government’s efforts has seen the HPTDC come out of losses despite the industry being hit by the monsoon disaster.
Congress leaders said the government has committed to make Himachal a favourable tourist destination and has announced plans to make Kangra the “tourism capital” of the state. The party advised the BJP leaders to stand together with the government to protect the properties and speak in the interest of the state.
Govt failed miserably
on every front: Randhir
BJP chief spokesperson Randhir Sharma trained guns at the Congress, saying the HC decision proves that the current government has failed on every front.
“Recently the HC ordered the attachment of Himachal Bhawan in Delhi. This is a serious matter, but the CM is blaming the Opposition to hide his shortcomings,” he said, adding, “Instead of commenting on judiciary, the CM should ask his ‘friend’ AG whether he had properly pleaded the cases in the Court or not.”
Sharma called out the government for highlighting their efforts to promote tourism while failing to make the hotels profitable.
“The CPS decision is being discussed in political circles, but what is the compulsion that the CM wants to save his friends and wants to save them by hiring big lawyers in the HC and the Supreme Court, spending crores of rupees, putting a burden on the government treasury. It seems that the CM is helpless and cries about the financial treasury being empty when on the other hand, he does not want to stop the expenditure on CPS,” he added.
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