- Formed United Hospitality Front of Maharashtra (UHF)
- Govt has to feed us, our families, our employees and their dependents if industry remain shut: Anurag Katriar
Newly formed United Hospitality Front of Maharashtra (UHF) saw participation from 2,00,000 restaurants from across the state which was named as Rozi Roti stir on on April 8, 2021 at 12.30pm. The peaceful silent protest, which was called on to shed light on the plight of the industry, especially with the new lockdown in place, passed off without a hitch—but for the UHF, this is just the first step towards providing a livelihood for those involved in the restaurant industry.
Three key members of the UHF Anurag Katriar, President of the National Restaurant Association of India; Shivanand Shetty, President (Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association) AHAR; and Pradeep Shetty, Senior Vice President of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI).
Pradeep Shetty about the silent protest which was held yesterday said “The Rozi Roti campaign is meant to communicate to policymakers the problems that are happening to this industry. It is our humble request to the state government to please allow us to operate when we follow your SOPs, we are supposed to be Covid safe. If you don’t want us to operate, then we might as well shut down—but you have to feed us, our families, our employees and their dependents. This is a very short and sweet message that we are giving across to the government. And we hope they hear us”.
Anurag Katriar says “Hotel and restaurant industry is going through a peculiar situation and has common issues, grounds and objectives. Keeping this is in mind we have joined hands together. I see two parts to this issue. On one side is the disappointment, the dejection of the business owners. Being one of the largest employers of human capital in India, I think another thing which came out was the anguish and the anger of our employees. They were very upset that for no fault of theirs, they have already suffered for almost a year, just when they came back to some sense of life, once again, they have been asked to stop”.
Hotel Staff on protest
Shivanand Shetty says “Being hospitality professionals we are always optimistic and always try to represent and get things resolved and usually, we have been successful. We are businessmen with no party affiliation. We don’t believe in confrontation. This is a pandemic we understand there is a problem. But the government has been resisting when it comes to giving a helping hand, they should actually be extending help since they collect thousands of crores of tax from us”.
He added “The fact that the dues were paid on March 31, with the government already knowing they would be shutting down restaurants right after. They should not have done that, because I had already had a meeting with the CM, where he had assured us, we didn’t ask for a waiver this time, instead, we had asked only four instalments, and the CM had assured us that the excise payments would be divided into at least two instalments,” he said adding that many restaurateurs could have been able to pay their employees for four months or more with the amount paid for a period where they had been shut down. I think the government has to understand after this protest, they need to see the temperature in the room is really heating up and the sooner they resolve the pressing issues the better it is”.
Pradeep Shetty about what the future can hold for UHF said “If we survive, today, we will have another day. One of the most critical elements of coming together is to survive this present unprecedented situation. And from here, we are very sure that this may not suffice. We will intensify this protest and movement of Rozi Roti, to such a level where we will be heard. And the government recognizes how important this industry is for the economy”.
Editor in Chief : Mewati SItaram
