Hotels in Darjeeling not to close from July

Amitava Banerjee | MP | 8 June 2020 | Darjeeling: Hotel Owners of Darjeeling have rolled back the decision to close down hotels in the Hills town from July. 

The Darjeeling Hotel Owners Association (DHOA) on Monday announced that there will be no closure of the Hotels. This was decided in a meeting between the DHOA, employees, trade union representatives, district administration, police and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. 

"The meeting was fruitful. We have decided that Hotels will not close in July as announced earlier" stated Sangay Bhutia, President, DHOA. A committee has been formed with representatives from all sides.

"The committee will look into the wage issue. All hotels that have not paid wages to employees for the lockdown period will do so within the week. The committee will also come to an amicable solution of percentage of wages to be paid till tourists and normalcy returns. Tourism is the economic mainstay of this region. We have to all work together to tide over this abnormal situation," stated Anit Thapa, Chairman, GTA. 

The employees demanded that 60% wages be paid from now and the remaining 40% be paid during tourist season. 

Earlier the DHOA had announced that hotels would be closed down indefinitely from July 1 in Darjeeling owing to lack of tourists. 

There are 330 odd hotels in Darjeeling employing around 10,000. Every year the hotels cater to around 4.5 lakh tourists. 

(Courtesy, source and link- Millenium Post- http://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/hotels-in-darjeeling-not-to-close-from-july-410136)