There are around 120 hotels in and around Dalhousie with over two dozen restaurants besides gift and souvenir shops, photographers, etc. Around fifty percent of the hotels are given on lease contracts which are made by February for a period of the next financial year. Not only the Dalhousie’s tourism and hospitality industry is suffering due to coronavirus-induced restrictions including lockdown but in several cases, both the hotel owners and lessee are heading for a long-drawn legal battle.
Ashish Chadha, a hotel owner and former director of Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation informed that as many as 9000 persons were, directly and indirectly, dependent on tourism who had either been laid off by the hotel or restaurant managements and were forced to do other menial jobs to meet both ends. The Himachal Pradesh government should extend a helping hand towards the hotel and other stakeholders in the tourism industry and announce a moratorium to bail them out," he added.
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Harinder Singh, resident of Gurdaspur, who had taken a hotel on lease in Dalhousie said that given the unprecedented conditions he had demanded from the owner to return his advance amount but he had denied.” I am left with no option but to move the court since it is a natural calamity” he said. On the other hand, the hoteliers justify demanding the balance amount which they say they are demanding as a par agreement struck by both parties.
In charge of Dalhousie Taxi Union, Shiv Kumar Tandon informed that over 250 families were dependent entirely on tourism. “Tourists would hire taxis for Khajjiar, Chamba, Kala Top, Bhadarkali Temple and even to Manali, Kullu, Shimla, etc but now drivers are doing labor jobs on daily wages or working in their fields,” he said.
Government should give them concessions on token tax, passengers tax, etc besides reducing insurance charges and give relaxation in paying installments of loans taken to purchase taxis," he added.
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