Pollution body may shut 350 hotels for violations
ON NOTICE Most hotels do not have proper effluent treatment plants
At least 350 budget hotels in Delhi are facing closure with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) giving them shutdown notices because of absence of proper effluent and sewage treatment plants.
There are around 1,500 budget hotels in Delhi, most of which are located in Paharganj, Karol Bagh and Mahipalpur.
The DPCC notice, individually issued on April 10, says if they (hotel owners) failed to comply, power and water supplies will be snapped.
Delhi Police and the health department of the North corporation have been asked to cancel the licences of these establishments.
The notices asks the individual owners to submit compliance reports within 15 days.
According to Arun Gupta of the Delhi Hotel Mahasangh, around 350 small hotels and guesthouses in Paharganj, Karol Bagh and Rajinder Nagar have got these notices.
“This order is unfair. Delhi Police is the nodal agency for granting licence to run a guest house. Delhi Police’s licensing department never asked us to get permission from the DPCC. If it is mandatory to get the consent from DPCC, then why doesn’t the licensing department show it on their website as it does for the nod from the fire department and MCD. We will meet the environment minister ,” Gupta said.
These hotels don’t have consent to establish or consent to operate, which are mandatory to run hotels in Delhi. Consent to operate is the first step for any industry or trade to begin operation and permission, given by DPCC, is given within four months of the application.
Both permissions are a mandatory part of the processes in place to ensure water and air are not polluted. But these hotels didn’t have the required permission.
According to hotel owners, the air and water act is for “industry and we (guest house) are not industrial units”.
“Our activity is residential and non-polluting. We are not at fault and we should be saved from this harassment. Small guest houses are already under burden to pay conversion charges, house tax, luxury tax and licence fees,” Gupta said.
The National Green Tribunal on Friday ordered Delhi government to increase the fleet of destination buses that are to introduced in the city from May 1.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar noted that the AAP government’s proposal to launch 20 point-topoint buses at the outset will be too less and asked it to increase the number to at least 40.
“NCT Delhi is directed to increase the number of destination buses and also include Patparganj in the list from where these buses would originate. From 20 buses, it should be increased to at least 40 so that more number of people can avail the service,” the bench said.
The green panel also directed the authorities to ensure that at least four buses start on an experimental basis from far-off areas like Dwarka, Rohini, Janakpuri and Badarpur border and terminate at places like CGO complex, Nehru Place and Shastri Bhawan near Central Secretariat.
It also sought a detailed status report with regard to the impact of these buses on reduction in pollution in the city and directed the authorities not to stop this service unless directed by the tribunal.