Mon, Mar 17 01:45 AM
At a time when the Capital is reeling under acute shortage of budget hotels, the MCD's decision to seal guesthouses, which are over 15 metre high, has aggravated the problem. Though these budget hotels in the centre of Delhi and have good connectivity with the railway stations and airport have been thriving for decades, the MCD decided to seal them all of a sudden following directions from the Monitoring Committee that all guesthouses and hotels that exceed the height of 15 metres be sealed.
"The building department conducted a survey last year and found that nearly 283 hotels were violating building bye-laws. Some of them had even encroached upon areas.
Till now, we have taken action against 161 guest houses," said Ashok Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Sadar Paharganj Zone, MCD. The guesthouse owners are a harried lot now and have no idea as to how they can get redressal. "The MCD squad sealed the third floor of my guesthouse without any notice.
The MCD officials said my building exceeds the 15 metre limit but I am sure it does not. The kitchen of the guesthouse was on the third floor along with the water tanks.
Since these have been sealed, we are not able to carry out any activity," said a hotel owner in the Paharganj area. Last year, the Monitoring Committee had given directions to the MCD to seal all guesthouses and hotels which were exceeding the 15 metre limit.
The civic body also conducted a survey according to which 283 guesthouses and hotels were found exceeding the 15-m limit. The civic body would be completing the sealing drive of these hotels by end of March.
The issue of licence While on one hand the civic body has started sealing guesthouses, it has not been renewing their licenses for the last two years. "For the last two years, the MCD has not been renewing our licenses though we have paid conversion charges.
Whenever we ask why the licenses are not being given, they come up with one excuse or the other. We are being forced to operate illegally and the police also keeps harassing us," said Arun Gupta, General Secretary of Hotel Mahasangh.
The civic body on the other hand is complaining that these guesthouses do not meet certain eligibility criteria and hence licenses cannot be issued. "They need to submit a structural safety certificate and many of these are unauthorised.
We are now planning to bring in a different criteria for them so that they can be issued licenses soon," said Subhash Arya, Leader of the MCD House. In order to get a licence, the building department of the MCD is required to submit floor and room wise information.
However, for the last two years the department has failed to provide such details.
