Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 18: All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association (AJHLA) expressed concern over curtailment of Shri Amarnath Yatra period.
Addressing a press conference, President, AJHLA Pawan Gupta said that some forces are working under a well planned conspiracy to sabotage the Shri Amarnath Yatra every year. He said that the nefarious practice of some people had damaged the yatra, besides a negative message had been sent across the country, which had an adverse affect on the State tourism.
He asked the Government to make the optimum use of the 400 kanal land earmarked for the base camp of Shri Amarnath Yatra and retrieve the land from the encroachers at the earliest.
Gupta said that Government should start the entire yatra from Bhagwati Nagar base camp instead of sending yatries from Lakhanpur-via-Dhar road, Samba-via-Mansar and Kunjwani bypass, which will be in the interest of yatries and tourism related traders of Jammu.
In the pre-budgets meetings with Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu, Gupta said that Dr Drabu had assured about the installation of STP and will provide connections but in budget there was no mention of the project. He said that due to callous attitude of the Government the hoteliers are suffering financially as well as mentally as the Pollution Control Board has been issuing notice to hoteliers in the absence of non-providing of STP connections.
He said that representatives of AJHLA had met Governor, Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and concerned Ministers in this concern but except hollow assurance nothing concrete has been done by them.
He asked the Government that all the under-construction projects should be made time-bound and deadline should be fixed to avoid further delay. He said that work of Manda Zoo should be completed at earliest.
Among others present were Inderjeet Khajuria, Chairman, Anil Khajuria, Senior Vice President, Pritam Sharma, Vice President, Baldev Raj, Joint Secretary, Sunil Suri, Treasure, Swaran Singh, Nishant Gupta, Sankul Gupta and Manpreet Singh.
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