The J&K Government would consider issuance of No Objection Certificate (NOC) for four years by the Pollution Control Board (PCB) for renewal of registration of hotels, with an assurance by the Housing & Urban Development Department for connecting hotels of civil lines area with sewerage treatment plant, enabling provisional renewal of registration of hotels by the tourism department.
This decision was taken at a joint meeting of Minister for Forest and Environment, Mian Altaf Ahmad and Minister for Tourism and Culture, Nawang Rigzin Jora, which was convened yesterday to discuss the issues confronted by the hotel industry.
Commissioner/Secretary Tourism, Atul Duloo, Chairman, PCB, Lal Chand, Member Secretary, Arun Kumar Tickoo, Director Tourism, Farooq Ahmad Shah, Regional Director PCB, Farooq Geelani, President Houseboat Owners Association, Manzoor Ahmad Wanganoo and President Hotel and Restaurant Association Kashmir, Siraj Ahmad were among those who attended the meeting.
The meeting was informed that hotels having 6 to 19 rooms do not require NOC from PCB for their registration. However, in order to ease the registration process of the hotels that have accommodation of more than 19 rooms, it was decided that the hotel owners would upgrade the existing septic tank facilities of their hotels for ensuring requisite formalities for registration.
The meeting also discussed problems of houseboat owners which included setting up of timber depots in the vicinity of Dakyard Dalgate. Mian Altaf assured that setting up of timber sale depot in the area would be examined on priority and necessary orders issued at the earliest.
Minister for Tourism and Culture, Nawang Rigzin Jora, said that promotion of hotel industry for facilitating tourists in the State is the priority of the government, adding that focused attention is being given to mitigate their problems. He called upon the hoteliers to ensure better hospitality to the tourists on genuine rates.
