DJ Venkatesh & E Arun
Diglipur, April 01: In India, there is a famous saying “Atithi Devo Bhayoo” which means Guests are God but it seems that Andaman Tourism has coined its own slogan as “Athiti Fool Bhayoo” (Guests are fools).
The Tourism Department has many guest houses across these Islands and in many of these guest houses Gods (Guests), are cheated by providing horribly maintained rooms. Often guests are charged for AC Rooms even when the ACs in those rooms are not working since last many years.
For example, there are four AC rooms in Turtle Resort of Tourism Department at Diglipur. Out of four AC rooms the ACs of two rooms are not working since last one year and the ACs of remaining two rooms are not working since last one month.
In Hawksbill nest at Rangat, out of four AC rooms, two AC rooms are often allotted to guests, without a working Air Conditioning system since the last three years.
Even if the ACs are not working the booking desk staffs charges for AC rooms from guests.
When the tourists reach the concerned Guest House they find themselves cheated. The concerned authority deducts the AC charge from their bill and they are then compelled to live in the non-AC rooms of the Guest House, because in the remote areas like Rangat and Diglipur, it is difficult to get a room immediately in another resort.
Sources in Tourism Department told Andaman Sheekha that the responsibilities of the Civil and Electrical maintenance of the guest houses of IP&T rest with APWD but they never bother to attend to the complaints, although the IP&T transfers the annual maintenance funds to them in proper time.
”Instead of repairing and maintaining ACs, APWD often suggest the Tourism Department to replace the Air Conditioners,” sources in Tourism Department told Andaman Sheekha.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted Mr. Vinod Kumar, Deputy Resident Commissioner, IP&T to know the possible reasons behind the delay in the repair of the Air Conditioners, Mr. Vinod informed that the ACs that are lying unattended from long time are the cases, which do not come under the General Maintenance and those are considered as special cases, which causes delay.
When further asked about why those AC’s can’t be repaired he told that engineers from APWD have recommended the replacement and that must have been based on the life span of the ACs.
When asked about cheating guests, Mr. Vinod refuted such allegations, saying that IP&T staffs inform guests about non-functioning of ACs before booking the rooms in the resorts.
Sadly, Officers sitting in Tourism Department’s head office think that everything is rosy in remote Islands but actually on the grounds things are entirely different. Guest are often kept in dark and they are cheated again and again mostly in Guest Houses, which owned by Tourism Department.
