The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has decided to protest against the Union Cabinet’s decision to shut down Hotel Janpath in the capital.
On Monday, the 350-odd employees of the hotel wore black badges as a mark of protest.
The BMS was initially taciturn about holding protests as the cabinet committee on economic affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last week gave its approval to transfer the hotel to the ministry of urban development. The government press statement said that the “property can be considered for construction of government offices and similar purposes, which would save funds in hiring of government offices.” It also said an inspection report of IIT Roorkee had found the structure of the hotel “unserviceable in distressed condition”. The hotel did not meet seismic requirements and needed major renovation, the report said.
However, the BMS sources claimed there was a widespread feeling that the property would be sold to private players. The employees’ union at the hotel has misgivings about job security of the workers. “The fate of the employees is uncertain. But top management of the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has already made moves to ensure job security of officers by transferring them to other properties or giving them dual charge of this property as well as some other ITDC property,” Rakesh Bhanot, general secretary of the All India Workers Federation, which is affiliated to the BMS, said.
BMS Organising Secretary Pawan Kumar said the government was yet to give any categorical assurance about the fate of the workers. “Hotel Janpath is a public asset. We need a categorical assurance that the workers will not be retrenched,” he said. The hotel has 117 permanent and 239 contractual workers.
In an interview to Doordarshan last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Hotel Janpath was “unsafe” and had been incurring losses for several years with 10 per cent occupancy rate.