The Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) of the Nagaland assembly on Friday expressed grave concern over the huge financial loss, Rs 1.92 crore, incurred by state-owned Nagaland Hotels Ltd (NHL).
Taking serious cognisance of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the financial loss faced by NHL, the COPU headed by MLA Mhathung Yanthan along with other members inspected the two government-run hotels in the state on Friday. Talking to the press after inspecting Hotel Japfu here, Yanthan said that the committee is of the view that there are rooms for improvement to overcome the losses. NHL has two functional hotels – Hotel Japfu in Kohima and Hotel Saramati in Dimapur.
In its report laid during the February session of the assembly, the committee observed that in spite of making many constructive recommendations to the department concerned by the successive committees over the years, to initiate austerity measures to redress the overall losses incurred by NHL, no concrete result-oriented strategies were attempted.
“Even in regard to the implementation of the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) proposal or the business plan of revival of the two hotels no tangible steps have been taken by the concerned department,” it said.
Yanthan said that Friday’s inspection was a follow-up of the committee’s report to understand the functioning of the hotels. Having inspected the rooms and surroundings of Hotel Japfu, he said the hotel constructed in the late 1980s is quite old but is maintained well and to run such an old hotel is a challenge in itself.
“There is still room for improvement and we advised the hotel management to run it efficiently and profitably,” he said.
Further measures to improve the functioning to attain a certain level of profit would be recommended in the next report, which will be tabled in the assembly, he said.
“We are delving into all the issues and taking up with the departments concerned to address those,” he added.
The grant-in-aid of Rs 1.92 crore given by the state government to NHL is a loss incurred by the state, Yanthan said. COPU member MLA Bongkhao Konyak, Commissioner and Secretary Nagaland assembly PJ Antony, Commissioner and Secretary Industries and Commerce Kekhrievor Kevichusa accompanied the COPU chairman, while NHL Managing Director H Pienyu and General Manager Shurhovol Naleo were present.
- PTI