Hotel owners in West Bengal’s Siliguri city have decided not to rent hotel rooms to Bangladeshi nationals. However, hotel owners in the hill town of Darjeeling have not yet decided to close hotels for Bangladeshis.
Earlier, hotel owners in Tripura’s capital Agartala and West Bengal’s Malda had announced that they would not give rooms to Bangladeshi nationals. However, the hotel owners in Agartala later withdrew that decision.
Joint Secretary of the Greater Siliguri Hoteliers Welfare Association, an organization of hotel owners in Siliguri city and surrounding areas, Ujjwal Ghosh told the BBC, “In view of the recent conflict between India and Bangladesh, especially the insulting of the Indian national flag and the provocative statements made by a section of Bangladeshi citizens in that country, we have decided that Bangladeshi citizens will not be allowed to stay in any of our hotels.”
This is an organization of 180 hotel owners in the Siliguri Police Commissionerate area.
Ujjwal Ghosh further said, apart from Siliguri, we have also contacted the hotel owners’ associations of Cooch Behar and Alipurduar. They will also take a decision on this soon. And the hotel owners’ association of Darjeeling has also contacted us. However, the hotel owners of Darjeeling have told us that they are not taking this decision right now.
Tourism industry sources said that around 30,000 Bangladeshi tourists come to Darjeeling during the tourist season. Bangladeshi tourists were coming in large numbers due to the establishment of direct rail connectivity between Siliguri and Bangladesh.
A large number of them stay in hotels in Siliguri for a day or two before going to the hill towns. Again, Siliguri is also a large business center, so Bangladeshi businessmen also come to Siliguri for work.
However, even if the hotel owners in the Siliguri area decide not to provide rooms to Bangladeshis, its impact is not expected to be much, because Bangladeshis are hardly coming to India for travel due to the strictness of Indian visa issuance.
