On April 18, Himachal Pradesh's General Administration Department notified that 24 rooms across Himachal Bhawan and Sadan in Delhi, Himachal Bhawan in Chandigarh and Willy's Park Circuit House in Shimla would be available for public booking at Rs 4,000 a night, more than tripling the existing Rs 1,200 rate. After four days of public outrage, on the evening of April 22 the GAD issued a fresh order rolling back the hike. The reason cited was not the criticism. It was that the Himatithi booking portal could not be upgraded in time, so the new rates 'will be implemented after the portal upgrade is completed.'
The Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government, which inherited a state of debt and the famous Himachal Bhawan in Delhi the Himachal Pradesh High Court was once moved to attach over hydro-project dues, decided in mid-April that 20 per cent of its rooms in Delhi, Chandigarh and Shimla would be opened to the general public at Rs 4,000 a night. Until then they had been going at Rs 1,200, which itself was a hike from Rs 500 the year before. Within hours of the order being read by anyone outside Himachal, the criticism arrived: students travelling for medical treatment, government work or examinations had been the main users of these rooms, and a 233 per cent hike for occasional public access amounted to a quiet privatisation of a service the state was nominally running on their behalf. On April 22 the GAD's Deputy Secretary issued a clarification that managed not to mention the criticism at all. Instead, it explained that until the technical upgrades to the Himatithi booking portal were completed, the 'existing tariff structure' would continue. The revised rates, the order added, would be implemented 'in due course' once the portal was ready. The most reassuring sentence in Himachali public administration this week is that the only thing standing between you and a 233 per cent rent hike at Himachal Bhawan is the inability of a government website to handle a number with one extra digit.