more-in KOCHI: Owners of hotels and restaurants and local bodies in the district are locking horns over a government directive to set up sewage treatment plants. With municipalities like Muvattupuzha insisting that licences of hotels and restaurants will be renewed only if they set up facilities to treat sewage, hotel and restaurant managements will have no other option but to abide by the directive. “Public protests against sewage dumping in Muvattupuzha river had forced the municipality to direct hotels and restaurants to set up proper facilities to treat waste. But hotel and restaurant owners are opposing it, saying that setting up sewage treatment plants is an expensive affair,” said Muvattupuzha municipal chairperson Usha Sasidharan. The municipality has now made it clear that it will renew the licences of hotels and restaurants if they agree to an inspection by the health wing of the local body. Meanwhile, members of the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association pointed out that setting up sewage treatment plants would put huge financial burden on them. “A hotel set up at a cost of ?2 lakh to ?3 lakh may need around ?9 lakh to construct a sewage treatment plant. It is economically non-viable,” said M.P. Shiju, former district president of the association. Maintaining that civic bodies like Kochi Corporation were not keen on having sewage treatment plants, Mr. Shiju said such facilities should be constructed by the corporation and municipalities concerned. “A solution may evolve if they [civic bodies] charge a nominal fee for operating a common system,” he added. However, Kochi Corporation health standing committee chairperson V.K. Minimol said that all hotels and restaurants under its jurisdiction should set up plants within a year. “The decision to grant a relief period was taken after the association of hotels and restaurants made a request. But the corporation will not renew licences of institutions that are under the scanner for dumping sewage violating rules,” she added.

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