A gram panchayat generating revenue of ₹39,000 from a single source in a single day is rather unusual, but Shatainya panchayat in Theog block of Shimla district did just that in 2012-13. Even until last year it earned on average ₹20,000-30,000 a day during peak season and ₹6,000-8,000, off-season.
The bounty came from the fee the panchayat charged thousands of tourists visiting the Mahasu peak (nearly 9,000 ft) in Kufri, the world-famous tourist resort. Last fiscal the panchayat, which has over a dozen villages under its fold, earned over ₹33.9 lakh.
However, just when the peak season was about to start this year, the panchayat was dealt a big blow — a government notification prevented it from charging the tourist fee.
Since 2006 the panchayat had taken advantage of a clause in the Panchayati Raj Act that allowed it to collect a fee for providing facilities like water, sanitation and lighting at a public resort. The gram panchayat had developed a park at the Mahasu peak area and created facilities for tourists, including toilets. It employed around 13 men and women to oversee these services. Tourists aged above 14 and arriving on horseback were charged ₹5 each initially and ₹10 later.
This has stopped since February, following a direction from the Himachal Pradesh High Court acting on a letter that was treated as a public interest petition. Apart from the panchayat’s ₹10 entry fee, the letter referred to several issues including alleged encroachment of government and forest land by private players, pollution and mismanagement of horse dung, garbage and sanitation conditions, and the death of a tourist in an accident during an adventure activity in June last year.
Hit hard by the sudden drying up of revenue, the general body of Shatainya passed a resolution seeking restoration of its right to charge tourist fee under the Panchayati Raj Act.
Conservator Forests (Shimla Circle) Alok Nagar, on the other hand, says they have proposed setting up a community-based ecotourism society to streamline activities. The Mahasu peak annually attracts thousands of visitors from India and abroad, and this in turn generated livelihoods for young men and women in 15 panchayats. This is apart from the high revenue it generated for the Shatainya panchayat.
Shatainya’s pradhan Chandan Jogi says the revenue enabled them to construct several link roads and repair footpaths and bridges, which are so vital for connectivity in a hilly area. Poor households were also assisted monetarily for house repairs, marriages and other exigencies. According to panchayat records, over ₹50 lakh was spent on these activities last fiscal.
Besides Shatainya, several other gram panchayats in Himachal Pradesh’s tourist catchment area charge a fee for services such as parking and sanitation. They also levy taxes on hotels and commercial establishments, including a liquor cess and fee for setting up mobile towers.
Villagers are unhappy that while private parties and the mafia continue to make money at Mahasu peak, the panchayat is being deprived of its legal right. Though the Shatainya panchayat has nearly ₹60 lakh in fixed deposits, the flow of money from its main source of revenue has been blocked. Clouds of uncertainty hover over what used to be one of the richest gram panchayats in the State.
The writer is a senior journalist based in New Delhi