Mussoorie, July 30
In violation of government rules, paying guesthouses here are charging excessive rent from tourists while providing very little facilities in return.

Local hoteliers complain that these guesthouses are bringing a bad name to the “Queen of the Hills”.

“During the peak season, the rent charged by the guesthouses are even more than four and five star hotels here,” said Ajay Bhargava, secretary of Mussoorie Hotels Association (MHA).

In May and June this year, room rents in the guesthouses ranged between Rs 500 to 3,500, depending upon the demand.

“Owners of these guesthouses make merry on weekends, when all hotels are packed to capacity. They charge exorbitant rents from tourists who are left with no other choice,” alleged a hotelier, who did not wish to be named.

According to the tourism department, there are 52 registered paying guesthouses in Mussoorie andowners cannot charge rent of more than Rs 500 per day for a room.

However, the rules are being blatantly being violated, especially during summers.

Moreover, several incidents of disputes between tourists and owners are seen each year because most of the guesthouses lack even the most basic facilities.

“Last year, I did not have a hotel reservation and had to stay in a guesthouse where even after paying Rs 1500 my family did not get sufficient water for bathing,” complained Rahul Aggarwal, who comes to Mussoorie from New Delhi each year along with his family.

“Tourists who have had bad experiences at these guesthouses might not even visit the town next year. This will also lead to nagative publicity,” laments Bhargava.

MHA members also complained that unlike registered hotels, the guesthouses are not liable to pay taxes in the form of luxury tax, VAT, expenditure tax, commercial house tax et al.

“There is no benefit to the government from these guesthouses,” they complained.

Another major issue is non-compliance with safety norms. An official of the local fire department, on condition of anonymity, said the guesthouses are reluctant to comply with fire safety norms despite several requests.

“They are reluctant to even get a registration by depositing Rs 20 in the bank,” the official said.

On the other hand, officials of the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) cite lack of manpower as the reason for the department being unable to check these violations.

“We do not have sufficient manpower to keep a regular check on the activities of these guesthouses,” said AK Dwivedi, joint director of the Board.

“However, we immediately take action when a complaint is brought to our notice,” he added. 

The packing industry the world over has innovated designs for their products, insuring stability and durability of packed material. The polymer plastic has the intrinsic property of being stable is air and is moisture- resistant.

The relative economics in terms of cost of transportation and storage further makes it the choicest material for the food industry.

The boom in the fast food industry has been due to the availability of cheap plastic packing which insures freshness of packed material for about six months from the date of packaging.

However, in tune with the global marketing strategies, packing as a tool is proving to be a differentiator of products. The promotion of laminated plastics as efficient barriers against moisture for longevity of the shelf life of food material is a growing trend in the packing industry. Sadly, these colourful laminated packings remain littered and uncollected as they have no recycling potential anywhere in the country.

The use of laminates in milk cartons, aseptic cartons, chocolate bars, potato chips, pan masala and gutkha and a range of dry and frozen goods is on an exponential increase.

The essential element in the processing of such material is economy in terms of reducing the permeability of the single material which otherwise would have been required to be thickened to meet the required standards for food preservation.

Perhaps, thickening of single material packaging is a viable alternative as the metal-coated polyester films like other polymers pollute the environment. It needs to be emphasised that howsoever stable and chemically inert a substance may be, it will undergo chemical decomposition due to ultraviolet radiation.

In European countries, especially Germany, recycling the laminates is a prior condition for packing material. The “waste hierarchy” believes in “reducing” as a better option than “recycle”.

The wide variety of laminate combinations in the waste stream complicates the recovery task because each laminate type may require a different recovery process during physical recovery of such material.

The argument given in such cases is to cast away these in landfills. The unanswered questions remain as to who shall pay for creating such an infrastructure and why a non-consumer of such material should also be made to bear the cost.

The companies which make use of environment for marketing their products should be made more responsible in selecting the material for packing and a “law on closed substance cycle” should be formulated for the industries so that they are responsible for such material right from the cradle to the grave.

It is time that a re-thinking should begin regarding packaging material as a long-term measure for environmental protection.

— Writer Vipin Kumar is a waste management consultant