Amritsar, September 2
Over 400 unauthorised commercial buildings, most of them hotels, lodges, stay houses, inns, showrooms, shops, etc, raised in the vicinity of the Golden Temple are ready to shell out regularisation fee of Rs 25 per square foot.
A delegation of the Federation of Hotels and Guest Houses Association recently met Local Bodies Minister Dr Inderjit Singh Nijjar to convey the same.
The delegation members said they had taken up the matter with the previous SAD and Congress governments, but they insisted on paying Rs 500 per square foot (for constructed area), which was not economically viable. Therefore, they wanted to urge the new government to consider the matter, taking into account the financial condition of the small lodges and stays which had suffered losses on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government enacted the Amritsar Walled City (Recognition of Usage) Act, 2016, but it remains unimplemented as the matter is sub judice.
Members of the association said the Bhagwant Mann-led government should take a cue from the Delhi Government that had authorised over 1,200 illegal hotels before conducting the Commonwealth Games.
Environmentalists and heritage lovers are of the opinion that lodges create a lot of pollution and heat, which damage gold plates, besides filling the holy sarovar around the Golden Temple with silt. Over 400 hotels means an equal number of kitchens, over 2,000 rooms, a large number of air-conditioners and the same number of washrooms.
