BENGALURU: Multiple paying guest (PG) accommodation owners across the city say it’s challenging for them to operate facilities under the new BBMP guidelines, and are seeking some relaxations.
Their three major concerns are requirement to store CCTV footage for 90 days instead of 30, as mandated previously by police department; providing 70 square feet of space per inmate; deploying mandatory security personnel, which they say will cost them more and many PG managements won’t be able to afford the same.
The new guidelines were announced after a man walked into a PG facility in Koramangala and killed a woman inmate in July this year.
PG owners claim adhering to the new guidelines will be extremely difficult given their current earnings. Storing 90 days’ worth of data requires at least 8 terabytes of storage, which would cost them Rs 50,000 monthly, they say.
Arjun BM, a PG owner from Kundalahalli, said, “Our hostel can accommodate 80 people and we charge Rs 6,000-7,000 for each inmate. After all our expenses, we are left with a bare minimum of Rs 20,000 every month. But even that money will be spent if we follow the new norms. How will we manage,” he asked. With the new rules, PG owners may not be able to afford multiple facilities for basic charges like WiFi, electricity and food thrice a day, among others, he maintained.
Bhaskar Reddy, a PG owner and president, PG Owners’ Welfare Association (Whitefield and Nagawara provision), said, “We understand that BBMP wants to have dedicated personnel for security, but we have other alternatives for that like CCTV surveillance and biometric entry. Many PG accommodations in the city are small, with less than 100 people and maintained by one family. For those who barely make income, these expenses will be a big burden. Majority of the owners say they can’t bear expenses of CCTV footage and security personnel.”
Bhaskar said they are already providing about 60 sqft of space per inmate. “We have to cut down the number of people from four to two or three if we have to provide 70 sqft per head, which is again a loss for PG owners.”
The BBMP crackdown on unregistered PGs has ruffled many feathers. One such owner in Marathahalli said, “Last time when officials came and shut the PG for a day, inmates struggled a lot. A lot of pressure was put on us as building owners and students wanted their money back. We lost a lot of customers that time, and many hesitated to choose our accommodation later.”
Arun Kumar, president, PG Owners’ Welfare Association, said, “Our request to officials is to give us at least 30 days’ time as many want to register their PGs to get licences.”
