With the sweltering heat in the nearby plains of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, the tourist season should have been at its peak by now but visitors are fighting shy of visiting the hill State following reports of acute water shortage and outbreak of jaundice. Tourism has been further crippled by a strike by hotel and restaurant workers, exacerbated by crumbling infrastructure.
The capital Shimla is not yet free of the jaundice and Hepatitis-E epidemic caused by sewage contamination of drinking water at Ashwani Khad, a major water supply system for the town. This water scheme has been shut down by the local municipal corporation for more than three months now and resulted in acute water shortage. Residents and hotels in a majority of the city’s suburbs are supplied drinking water on alternate days while localities further away get water once in three or four days.Parking problems
The hill town also faces an acute shortage of space for parking vehicles. Tourists who choose to drive to the hill station have to deal with the ‘parking mafia’ and pay huge sums. The parking fee for a couple of days runs into thousands; arguments and scuffles are common at the few contractual parking lots in the town. A majority of the hotels have no parking lots of their own.
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The main town, designed for a few thousands, is now home to more than two lakh people, with enormous stress on the civic infrastructure. The high cost of living — a consequence of the tourism industry — has left many residents hostile to the visitors. “It’s only the hotels and restaurant owners and a few taxi drivers who are benefited by tourists here; otherwise for us it is only the traffic jams,” said Surendra Sharma, a local lawyer. The latest blow to the tourism industry is the strike call by the hotels and restaurants workers’ union.More than 250 workers of CITU protested on Sunday against the violation of labour laws by the hotel owners, said Kishori Datwalia. There is going to be a massive strike on May 2 in the capital and its suburbs by the hotel workers, he added.
A strike call by hotel and restaurant workers is a further blow