Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 27: The members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tourism, Transport and Culture headed by Kiranmay Nanda, MP, called on the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti here last evening and discussed issues pertaining to development of modern tourism infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir.
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Navin Kumar Choudhary, Secretary Tourism, Farooq Ahmad Shah and Director Tourism Kashmir, Mehmood Ahmad Shah, were present on the occasion.
Interacting with the Parliamentary delegation, the Chief Minister said J&K Government is in the process of developing new tourist destinations in the State for which it needs adequate financial and technical support from the Central Government. “We will involve experts in building state-of-the-art tourism infrastructure at these new destinations,” she said and added that the Government won’t, however, allow vandalizing of these new resorts as has, unfortunately, happened with some of the most cherished tourist destinations in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We would allow only development of eco-friendly infrastructure at the upcoming tourist destinations like Tosamaidan, Ranjit Sagar Dam, Mughal Road and Bangus Valley and develop local economic stakes in tourism promotion,” she said and added that tourism is directly linked to economic revival and J&K has been gifted by the God with breathtaking scenic beauty and water resources which need to be harnessed judiciously for tourism promotion.
Maintaining that violence was hurting the State’s economic interests the most with tourism being the biggest casualty, the Chief Minister sought support of the people in maintaining peace. “Unfortunately, the State’s tourism and business fraternity has to suffer the brunt when atmosphere of peace is disturbed in the valley by violent incidents,” she said.
The other members of the visiting Parliamentary Standing Committee included, Ritabrata Banerjee, Harish Chandra Meena, Ram Kumar Sharma, Shatrugan Sinha, Dasrath Tirkey and K C Venogopal.
Senior officers from Rajya Sabha Secretariat and Union Tourism Ministry also accompanied the Parliamentary Committee.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister called for creating an institutional mechanism to ensure productive use of the funds chipped in by cement manufacturers under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Navin Kumar Choudhary was present in the meeting.
Interacting with a delegation of the cement manufacturers from Khrew and Khonmoh, the Chief Minister said the funds provided by these unit holders under CSR have to be essentially used for developing facilities for the local areas including roads, health and educational facilities and environment conservation measures.
Responding to the revelations made by the cement unit holders that they are giving away almost Rs 4 crore every year under CSR to the local population some of which is even being used by the locals to pay the electricity bills of their residential houses, the Chief Minister said that instead of throwing away the money around in an unorganized manner, these funds need to be parked at a centralized place to be used productively for creating durable assets for the area.
The Chief Minister also expressed concern over unregulated movement of trucks in the area and asked the cement manufacturers to ensure that the movement of trucks doesn’t cause any inconvenience to the local population. She asked Commissioner Secretary Industries and Commerce to formulate projects for providing alternate road connectivity to the cement manufacturing plants bypassing the residential areas.
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