SHILLONG: The Garo Students’ Union, Khasi Hills Zone, on Friday expressed concern and disappointment over the non-functioning of the Garo guest house located in Forest Colony, Shillong.
In a statement, the student body said that after conducting a check, it was found that the guest house’s power supply had been cut off within a year of its inauguration due to non-payment of the bill amounting to more Rs 1 lakh. It has been over a year that the supply has been terminated yet the District Council office is not concerned due to which inconveniences are being felt by their employees and the house had to stop functioning immediately.
“Not only that, the house is not registered with the municipal board for waste disposal,” it said.
Besides, it said that the water supplied to the house is just collected in a tank from a well without filtration and decontamination thus risking the health of the staff as well as the guests.
Moreover, the guest house should maintain basic required standard and follow the guidelines issued by the Government of India & Ministry of Tourism (H&R Division) by installing CCTV in public areas with data backup for safety and security, reception facility with telephone and safe-keeping, tie-up with nearby hospital or doctor-on-call facility, registered records of the customers on which they became guest, registration with local authorities like police, water supply, electricity, municipal, fire department, State Tourism Department or corporation and segregation of wet and dry garbage dispose system.
Furthermore, the GHADC has already called for tenders from private parties to run on a contractual basis.
“We requested both the CEM and MDC of GHADC to withdraw the tender and properly run the lone guest house which belongs to our community. It will help the people visiting Shillong for medical purposes as the hotels in the city are overpriced and not everyone can afford it. We hope that it will serve our community and benefit the entire section of people coming to Shillong and hopefully generate revenue for the District Council,” the GSU said.
In this regard, the union has met Dipul R. Marak (CEM) and Agustine R. Marak (MDC) of GHADC and urged them to look into the matter.
