Approval and subsidy for private guest houses

Guest house owners in Delhi will be provided with temporary licences, announced by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India for renovation/modernization of their properties before the Commonwealth Games. This information was given by Sujit Banerjee, Secretary Tourism, Government of India.

Banerjee said that Additional Commissioner of Police – Licencing, Delhi Police has been asked to issue the licences to the guest houses, who want to avail the scheme. There were reports that majority of the guest houses in Delhi cannot avail the subsidy scheme as most of them did not have proper licences.

He said, “We want the guest house owners to avail this facility without further delay. Weekly special camps are being set up in Karol Bagh and Paharganj to sort out application processing related with the subsidy scheme.” When asked about the slow and poor quality of civic work being undertaken by the civic agency in these areas, Banerjee said that he is ‘concerned’ with the progress of work in Karol Bagh area.

Commenting on the delay in relation to ‘single window’ approval for Tourism schemes, Banerjee said that Group of Secretaries has already given the approval for the same and is awaiting the approval from the cabinet. To a specific question on government’s stand on extending the ‘tax holiday’ scheme for hotels opening even ‘partially’ within the deadline, i.e., July 31, Banerjee said that government has not taken a stand on it. “We will take a call on that,” he informed.

Mandatory CCTVs in approved guest houses

To ensure foolproof security during the Commonwealth Games, close circuit televisions (CCTVs) have been made mandatory in approved guest houses here, the government said today.

"Efforts have been made to address the security concerns in the guidelines for approval of guest houses.

CCTVs have been made mandatory in approved guest houses," Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmed said in reply to a written question in Lok Sabha.

He said, under the guidelines, the requirement of guest houses is minimum six rooms and for "Bed & Breakfast Scheme" the minimum of one and maximum of six rooms.

The antecedents of the owners of the B&B establishments are also verified before granting approval, he said.

The ministry has also introduced guidelines for setting up tented accommodation, he said.

No licence yet for Commonwealth Games B&B arrangements

The Commonwealth Games are a little over eight months away but guesthouses meant to accommodate tourists are far from ready. The Capital is currently short of 30,000 rooms.

Of the 1,400 guesthouse owners who applied for licences top provide bed and breakfast arrangements, 80 per cent have not been issued one, as admitted by the civic body on Wednesday in its standing committee meeting.

Guesthouses that came up in the city after February 2007 were not being issued licences. But the government had recently given directions to issue ad-hoc licences to them on yearly basis, keeping in mind the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

Despite this matter being taken up numerous times in the MCD's standing committee, nothing has been done so far.

“The Games are just round the corner and if licences are not issued in time, how will these owners renovate their places and make necessary arrangements? The executive wing needs to speed up the matter as licences are mandatory to run guesthouses,” said Ram Kishan Singhal, chairman of the MCD’s standing committee.

The MCD commissioner has admitted to the delay and assured that the “matter will be looked into”.

“We are going to boycott the Games as none of our demands have been met. We wanted regular licences but the civic agency is bent upon giving ad-hoc ones. This is not fair as once the Games are over, they can cancel the licence,” said Arun Gupta, general secretary of Delhi Hotel Sangh.

The guesthouse owners had also requested the government to release funds to upgrade their guesthouses.

Delhi government meanwhile has been working hard to provide solution to the problem. Some of the innovative solutions proposed and currently being worked upon are to provide luxury tent accomodation as an alternative to hotels and guesthouses.