AHMEDABAD:
It has been more than two months since the state tourism department
formed a committee to review alleged irregularities in granting
permission to guesthouses and farmhouses to operate as home stay in and
around Sasan Gir but the panel is yet to visit these areas. These
establishments continue to find mention as home stay units on the
tourism corporation's website.
Sources said that the tourism
department had directed the committee to contact forest department
officials and then review the permits. However, the committee has
neither discussed the issue with forest officials nor visited the
locations to review the permits as yet.
A senior officer from
the tourism department said that the committee was an eyewash as there
was pressure from senior BJP leaders not to cancel the permits.
Officials said that a majority of those given permission were close to
senior BJP leaders from the area.
Earlier this year, the
tourism department had given permission to 55 farmhouses and guesthouses
on the periphery of the Gir sanctuary to offer home stay services.
However, it is not clear whether the permits granted were legal as the
Gujarat high court had declared many of these farmhouses illegal because
they were earlier being used as hotels.
Sources in the
department said that these farmhouses do not qualify for approval under
the home stay policy. According to the policy, the owner of a home stay
unit has to stay on the premises but this is not the case with most of
these farmhouses. So such permission is illegal under the policy, they
added. Of the 55 establishments given approval, 52 are in Sasan while
three are in Junagadh district.
A senior officer said that the
department has ordered the review by the same agency which had carried
out the inspection while granting the home stay permission. He
questioned as to how the same agency would say that their earlier
inspection was wrong.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Two-months-on-home-stay-review-panel-yet-to-visit-Gir/articleshow/48475860.cms
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