Hotel owners in Kerala are deeply agitated over the Oommen Chandy government’s decision that it will not give bar licences even to 5-star hotels.

“The government is watering down its own liquor policy by deciding that it will not sanction bars at the new 5-star hotels,” said an angry D Rajkumar, president of the Kerala Bar Hotels Association. “This is an outright flouting of government policy and rules.”

Rajkumar was reacting to Chandy’s statement that the government would not give any more bar licences to 5-star hotels during the remaining period of its tenure.

The Chief Minister also said that 3- or 4-star hotels which upgrade to 5-star status in the hope of getting bar licences would not get it either.

“Hundreds of crores of rupees have been invested by hoteliers trying to get their hotels upgraded so that they could get bar licences,” Rajkumar told BusinessLine .

“They made the investments trusting the government policy that 5-star hotels would be allowed to run bars.”

Chandy, stung by criticism over his government’s issue of bar licence to six 5-star hotels in recent weeks, announced on Wednesday that the State government will not issue any more licences. The UDF regime’s controversial liquor policy, which had forced the shutdown of 730 bars, had exempted bars attached to 5-star hotels.

In the middle of the Assembly election campaign, the sanction of bar licences to six 5-star hotels had attracted Opposition ire and tended to damage the UDF electoral prospects.

Today’s announcement was a swift attempt at damage control by the government. Even if the Centre gave 5-star status to hotels, the State would impose new restrictions, Chandy insisted.

Rajkumar pointed out that in the hope of getting bar licences, nearly 100 hotels in the 3- and 4-star categories were being remodelled so that they would qualify for 5-stars. He noted that on an average the upgrade would require a ₹5-crore investment. A brand new 5-star hotel, on the other hand, would require ₹25 crore apart from the cost of land.

“They made the investments hoping to take advantage of the bar business and trusting the government’s policy,” he said.

“The government cannot go back on the policy midstream; it is bound to issue bar licences to those hotels which have complied with all the 5-star requirements.”

Most of these hotels had expected to get the licences before the current government’s term ends on May 20, he said.

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