After rainwater, people in Bengaluru face rise in hotel rates
‘Hotels have doubled room rent, no more rooms till weekend’
Bengaluru: Even as people in parts of the city struggle to survive the incessant downpour and floods, some hotels have gone ahead and raised the charges for their rooms.
The star hotels in Bengaluru are charging two to three times the regular fare for a room. The rates for rooms in deluxe hotels, which had been Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 a day, have risen to Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 a day.
This has put many families in the city in a dilemma. People who can afford to book a hotel room to stay till the rainwater subsides are also struggling to pay the rent due to the hike.
A family of four people booked a room in a star hotel since their house in Yamalur was inundated. The family had to pay Rs 42,000 for one night, said Meena Girishballa, CEO and manager, PurpleFront Technologies.
Some families had initially decided to shift to the first floors of their respective villas till the water level subsided. “Unfortunately for us, the electricity connection collapsed, making things all the more difficult for us. The only solution at hand was to stay in a hotel room till the situation gets better. The room fare was not a worry when we decided to move to a hotel,” said a citizen.
Many families in residential complexes are willing to pay the new rates for the rooms, but they find that no more rooms in hotels are available for booking.
When contacted, managers of hotels in areas like Whitefield, Outer Ring Road, Old Airport Road and Koramangala said that their rooms had already been booked till Friday.
A third problem with hotels now for families in inundated places is that many hotel managers do not let the guests bring in pets to their rooms. The guests are also charged extra for the permission to keep pets with them.
“Our families are in a desperate situation with regard to stay,” said the residents.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
