SHILLONG, April 14: The state government has said it is trying its best to improve all the Meghalaya Houses in the country.
Referring to The Shillong Times’ report on the condition and problems in the Kolkata Meghalaya House, General Administration Department Minister Dasakhiatbha Lamare said fiscal challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic affected the steps being taken to bring in the necessary reforms across the Meghalaya Houses.
“I can assure you that a lot of efforts have been put in to correct everything in all the guesthouses during the tenure of the previous minister and during my term,” he said.
Admitting that the department has a financial crisis, he said that the government is trying to do whatever it can for improving the services in the state guesthouses located in several states across the country. “We are trying to do a little bit at a time even though we are having a financial crisis,” Lamare said, making it clear that it is not possible to bring in all the reforms and improvement at one time.
The services have not been commensurate with the steep hike in the room rent. The state Cabinet had recently revised the room rent at the Meghalaya Houses in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Vellore and Guwahati from Rs 300 to Rs 1,050 per day in view of the increase in maintenance cost, higher electricity bills and others.
However, the poor services in the Meghalaya House at Russell Street in Kolkata came to light as rooms there are not being maintained allegedly because of the lack of support from the state government.
This reporter had on a recent visit to the government’s Kolkata property found that the mattresses and pillows were dirty and stained. The TV was non-functional as the set-top boxes in the rooms had not been recharged.
The toilet walls were also dirty and there was no toiletry, not even a bar of soap.
