Generate own revenue to pay staff: CITCO writes to three Chandigarh hotels

The corporation had recently sought a grant of ₹27 crore from the UT administration to run its day-to-day affairs and pay the wages to the staff

Struggling to pay the salaries to its own employees, Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO) has directed the managements of Hotel Mountview, Hotel Shivalikview and Chef Lakeview to generate their own revenues to pay their staff.

UT’s plans to privatise the three CITCO hotels—Mountview, Shivalikview and Lakeview—have also failed to materialise with the administration fearing no takers would come forward during the current economic slowdown. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Stating that the lockdown restrictions had been removed and the hotels were now fully operational, the CITCO management shot off letters to the three hotels, asking them “to increase the sales/revenues of their respective units so that salaries of the employees for the month of November 2020 and onwards may be arranged at your own from operational revenues.”

CITCO had to take a loan against fixed deposits to pay the wages to its own employees. The corporation had recently sought a grant of ₹27 crore from the UT administration to run its day-to-day affairs and pay the wages to the staff.

Notably, CITCO is yet to get ₹10 crore pending dues from the UT administration on account of expenses incurred for running the UT guest house in New Delhi and UT Secretariat canteen in Chandigarh.

The UT’s plans to privatise the three CITCO hotels have also failed to materialise with the administration fearing no takers would come forward during the current economic slowdown. The administration has currently put on hold the selling of these hotels even though the privatisation of the UT electricity department is at an advanced stage.