Beef row: Hoteliers contradict JMC’s claims of hotel violating rules, say greenline service not available in area

The hospitality industry in the city has come out strongly in support of the owners of hotel Hyat Rabbani which was sealed after a six-hour-long siege by cow vigilantes outside the hotel on Sunday evening over rumours that it had beef in its menu.

Several people from the hoteliers association have contradicted the claims made by the administration of the Jaipur Municipal Corporation that the hotel was not abiding by the greenline service rules of the civic body.

“The greenline service of the JMC facilitates collection of garbage from the various city hotels but it doesn’t operate in all the areas of the city because the civic body lacks infrastructure. In most days the collection vehicle doesn’t arrive, leaving the hotel administration with no option but to dump the waste in the JMC garbage bin,” Gajendra Luniwal, president of Jaipur Hotels Association told HT on Tuesday.

This is in contradiction of the claims made by mayor Ashok Lahoti who had said that the hotel was sealed because it didn’t have any license to operate and was also violating the terms of greenline service.

“We have sealed the hotel because it didn’t have any license to operate its restaurant and as well as the hotel. The dumping of leftovers of meat in public dumping grounds is also a violation of the greenline services rules of the JMC,” Lahoti had told HT on Monday.

But Naeem Rabbani, the owner of the hotel said that his application for license was pending in the civic body.

“I don’t have a restaurant in the hotel so don’t require a license to operate it. A long time back, I had submitted an application to the JMC for obtaining the hotel license but to this day it is pending,” alleged Rabbani.

The people from the Jaipur Hotel Association seconded his claims.

“The JMC rarely issues any license to hotels these days and many applications are pending for a long time. Moreover, the greenline services also don’t operate in the area where hotel Rabbani is situated and all the garbage from the adjacent hotels are also dumped in the nearby garbage bin of the municipality,” said Luniwal.

The hotel owners also strongly criticized the way hotel Rabbani was sealed at midnight after all the boarders were asked to leave.

“What about the inconveniences of the tourists who were driven out of the hotel in midnight as it was sealed? This doesn’t give a good message for tourism in Jaipur,” said MS Khan, vice president of the Jaipur Hotel Association.

Luniwal said that there were no such rules which said that meat leftovers can’t be dumped in garbage bins of the municipality.