Nearly three-month long detention of mainstream politicians post abrogation of J&K’s special status may have been no less than grandeur at Centaur Lake View Hotel, however just Rs 5 lakh has been paid for the high-end facility to the detainees. Official documents reveal that the hotel’s bill in crores is still unpaid.
Around 40 mainstream politicians were kept at Centaur LakeView Hotel built on 12 acres of land along the banks of Dal Lake here, postAugust 5, 2019 when Union Government abrogated J&K’s special status anddowngraded the state to a Union Territory.
The politicians stayed at the hotel with 252 room
capacity for nearly four months from Aug 5 to Nov 17 lastyear.
The hotel during this period provided 6786 high end meals tothe politicians, which included their breakfast, lunch, dinner and evening tea,for which it charged Rs 1350 each day plus GST and provided 20 percentconcession on actual amount it usually charges, show official documents.
Besides, the documents show, the politicians and securitypersonnel kept for their security had night stays in the hotel’s double roomsand suites.
As per official records, Rs 5720 plus GST is the amountcharged on double room by the hotel per day, while Rs 7920 plus GST was chargedby the hotel on suites per day with 20 percent discount on actual cost.
The documents mention features of the room in which thepoliticians stayed at the hotel having ACs and heating system, besides havingLED, cable networking, 24×7 hot and cold water with daily housekeeping serviceswith supplies including laundry facility provided to the politicians.
The bill charged by the hotel for providing “high class”facilities to the politicians for their nearly four month stay at the hotel,documents show, is Rs 3,90,39,220. It includes lodging charges of Rs 2,76,18,633.
However, the bill is still unpaid with only Rs 5 lakhreimbursed to the hotel on 26 August 2019, show the documents.
The communication from the hotel to Divisional CommissionerKashmir’s office over non-payment of bill reads: “…under this declaration ofemergencies with the abrogation of Article 370/35A written communication havenot been served to the management and finally at the later stage by virtue ofSRO NO. 494 issued from the Home Department, the hotel was declared as sub-jailand since then all the political detainees were enjoying all kinds offacilities and services being provided to them as per monitoring andobservation of state administration. The management proved very cordial andcooperative with the state administration in scoring their predetermined objectivesand mission of the government.”
It also mentions: “the management despite having so manyoperational difficulties could manage all boarding and lodging services to thedetainees with complete satisfaction and without any failure, keeping into considerationthe interest of the nation. The state was shambling and going through toughestdeplorable situations during the declaration with the removal of special statusof J&K, which has made virtually immense impact on our confirmedreservations and also on expected businesses and the Centaur has remainedconfined to jail status which discouraged our local event business likemarriages and other parties with whom tentative confirmations were on records.”