Hoteliers and restaurant owners of Cheniweder Srigufwara area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Wednesday alleged that tourists are not being allowed to use Bijbehara-Langanbal route in Anantnag t to reach Pahalgam, incurring economic losses to them.
Hoteliers and restaurant owners while talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that due to unknown reasons, tourists are being prevented from moving through the Bijbehara-Langanbal route for the past two months.
“We have spent lacs of rupees to start restaurants and hotels on the route keeping in view tourists movement through apple valley Srigufwara,” they said.
Hundreds of youth were earning their livelihood while setting their stalls and selling several items on the route but now their families are getting affected as they are unable to earn a single penny, said a restaurant owner.
He said that since the last 3 years they have already suffered huge losses and were even unable to clear bank loans which they took for setting up their businesses.
“This year everything was going on alright and we have made agreements with dozens of workers for providing services at our restaurants but we are unable to pay them,” said another restaurant owner.
He said that despite bringing the issue in notice of higher ups but nothing has been done in this regard.
Hoteliers and restaurant owners have demanded immediate intervention of LG Manoj Sinha and other officials to save the livelihood of hundreds of people—(KNO)