Locks out for illegal Kullu-Manali hotels

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 24

The padlocks are out and the notices are ready. An unprecedented  clampdown on illegal hotels operating in Manali and its suburbs will begin from the tiny hamlet of Kasol in Kullu district on Tuesday. To start with, 48 such hotels are on the radar of the administration for violating a host of building and environmental norms in Kasol alone. There are 75 others in the Manikaran valley. 

With the horrifying memory of the demolition drive in Kasauli, which claimed the life of Assistant Town Planner Shail Bala on May 1 when an angry hotelier allegedly shot her dead, still fresh in the minds of people, precaution is being taken by the administration this time to ensure that all goes well during the fresh exercise.

Following the Kasauli murder, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the Himachal Government to launch strict state-wide action against hotels that had raised illegal structures.

As a team headed by Kullu SDM Amit Guleria gears up to crack the whip on hundreds of illegally operating hotels and guest houses in the Kullu-Manali valley, there is a palpable fear and disquiet among the region’s hotel owners. This came even as 13 of the 48 hotels in Kasol that have been put on notice claimed to have “already completed formalities” that would help them escape action. The sealed hotels will have their water and power supplies disconnected.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court had earlier directed the authorities to file on July 5 a report detailing the action taken against unauthorised tourism units, including hotels, guest houses, home stay or bed-and-breakfast units in the state.

The government also has to file a report before the NGT on July 16 with a list of at least 500 hotels that have been inspected. Officials maintain the total number of hotels in the district is close to 2,000, all of which need to be inspected, with about 1,500 in Manali alone. Of these, only 638 are registered with the tourism and excise departments.

The NGT had also directed the government to demolish unauthorised portions of 92 hotels in Manali that it had identified as illegal. The owners rushed to the Supreme Court, which gave them a year to pull down illegal portions on their own. “We have identified 48 unauthorised hotels in Kasol, Tosh and Manikaran and 75 in the Manikaran valley,” said Guleria. 

Ram Subhag Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism and Civil Aviation, said, “The Tourism Department will act tough with such hotels and those functioning illegally will be closed down.”

Manali Hoteliers Association president Gajender Singh Thakur, while not contesting the action, asked, “Hotels may have committed illegalities, but why did the officials not act while structures were being raised?” 

Thakur added: “Moreover, the Manali development plan has never been approved by the Cabinet. If we move court, the government will not be able to enforce the Act.”