Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 21: In what could be termed as utter disregard to the directives of the Committee on Public Undertakings of the Legislative Assembly, the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation (JKTDC) has failed to get prized Chashmashahi huts vacated from the bureaucrats. The ignorance of the Committee’s directives in notwithstanding the fact that every year during peak tourism season the stakeholders cry aloud about space crunch to accommodate both domestic and foreign tourists.
The Committee on Public Undertakings of the Legislative Assembly comprising 12 Members of Legislative Assembly and two Members of Legislative Council, in its report tabled on the floor of the Lower House on April 3, 2013, had directed that either the Government must vacate the prized huts at Chashmashahi located in the foothills of Zabarwan mountain range in a phased manner or pay rent thereof at the market rates in order to save the Tourism Development Corporation from sustaining huge financial loss on this account.
Out of the 67 JKTDC huts at Chashmashahi only two are available with the Corporation while as rest are under the possession of the Estates and Home Departments.
However, the direction of the Committee on Public Undertakings has not been implemented by the JKTDC till date and the valued huts, which were constructed for utilization to accommodate the tourists, continue to be in the possession of the bureaucrats.
Similarly, the Committee on Public Undertakings had expressed surprise as to how the Estates Department has allotted the JKTDC accommodation to the Darbar Move employees at various places without consulting the Corporation authorities.
It had directed that accommodation should be vacated in a phased manner within a period of six months in the light of tourist flow to the Valley as there was no problem to hire private rented accommodation for the employees as was being done in case of legislators especially in view of the overall change in the situation across the State.
But this direction has too fallen on the deaf ears thereby indicating that how much seriously the Government takes the recommendations and directions of the Committees of State Legislature, sources said.
The failure to vacate the prized Chashmashahi huts is notwithstanding the space crunch, which the stakeholders in tourism cry aloud during peak tourism season every year, they said. “As per the rough estimates these huts could fetch several crores of rupees on account of accommodation charges to the JKTDC, which is otherwise not getting even single penny from the Government for the maintenance of its assets”, sources added.
Though several Ministers have been stating during the past several years that de-hiring of huts would be done in a phased manner in order to put them for commercial use yet nothing has been done on ground, they said. “It seems Government is more concerned about appeasing bureaucrats at the cost of tourists, who always yearn for hiring Chashmashahi huts for being located in extremely serene atmosphere”, sources added.
The revenue, which these huts could generate can be gauged from the fact that famous hotels located on Boulevard Road and Chashmashahi vicinity charge thousands of rupees per day/night, sources said.
When contacted, Managing Director of JKTDC, Shamim Wani said, “these huts would be vacated from the bureaucrats only when alternate accommodation comes up for which the Chief Minister had in the recent past laid foundation stone”. He, however, admitted that these huts could fetch crores for the JKTDC.
About charging rent at the market rates, the Managing Director said, “we are also a Government’s wing as such cannot take decision unilaterally. This has to be decided at the highest level”.
When his attention was drawn towards the direction of the Committee on Public Undertakings vis-à-vis regularization of daily wagers of the Tourism Development Corporation, Mr Shamim said, “the Board of the Corporation has decided to complete the regularization exercise in a phased manner depending upon the financial condition of the Corporation. Last year, we had regularized 130 daily wagers and more would be regularized in future”.
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