Curious case COVID-19 bills: Payment worth Rs 8 crore due, claims hoteliers in Pune

Hoteliers in Pune claim that over Rs 8 crore worth of bills are still due. The hotels in the city were rented by the Pune district administration for the stay of doctors, nurses during the COVID-19 period.

File Photo (Credits: llb)

Pune: Hoteliers in Pune claim that over Rs 8 crore worth of bills are still due. The hotels in the district were rented by the Pune district administration for the stay of doctors and nurses during the COVID-19 period.

Over 24 hotels around Pune's Sassoon Sarkar Hospital were rented out during the COVID-19 pandemic after the government had directed frontline warriors, including doctors and nurses, to stay at a hotel and not to go to their residence. The step was taken as a precautionary measure to curb the spread of the virus in the district.

The Sassoon Sarkar Hospital has over 2000 staff members who stayed at these hotels and a total of 700 rooms were rented for them.

As per the government’s order, the doctors and nurses of the hospital stayed at these hotels for a period of six months. Many of the hotels, which were rented out by the hospital, come under the five star category and the total billing amount had reached Rs 8 crore by the end of this order. 

The hoteliers in Pune revealed that the bill has been repeatedly being sent to the district administration but the payments are not being released. 

Meanwhile, Pune reported more than 11,000 new infections on Tuesday (April 7), taking the overall active cases tally to 84,000. The district also remains one of the worst-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The district also reported 58 deaths, taking the total death toll to 10,340.