Protests mar New Year Eve celebrations in Nainital

Thousands of traders in Nainital today boycotted the New Year Eve celebrations and staged a candle-light march against the administration's actions on hoteliers and restrictions imposed on movement of vehicles.
Unlike previous years, the celebrations on the Mall Road was dull, though, most of the hotels remained packed and visitors flocked to the popular hill station in large numbers.
More than 4,000 people took out a candle-light march from Mallital to Tallital - through the Mall Road - this evening to protest against the steps taken by the town administration to regulate the movement of vehicular traffic to ease congestion.

The administration has also discouraged parking on the Mall Road and restricted entry of medium-sized vehicles on it.
The move follows a high court order directing the authorities to curb the number of vehicles entering the town and seal hotels that do not offer adequate parking space.
Some of the restrictions have annoyed the traders dependent on tourism. They decided not to participate in the public celebrations on New Year Eve this year.

"Year-end tourism has reduced by 30 per cent this year due to inconvenience to tourists," Ved Sah, a hotelier, said.
"The administration has implemented the court decision that is affecting tourism badly. It was not meant to be that way," said Dinesh Shah, president of the hotel and restaurant association.

During previous years, the hotel and restaurant associations used to decorate the popular Mall Road with bulb strings for the Christmas-New Year week. Loud music was played and bonfires were arranged at many points through the road. It was a major tourist attraction and people enjoyed the revelry.