Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 6: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today chaired a meeting of Tourism Department attended by the MD J&K Bank and other concerned officers to take appraisal of measures being taken by the department for identifying the gaps, policy updates and scope for improvements to strengthen the homestays for overall promotion of tourism sector in J&K.
The Chief Secretary impressed upon the department to come-up with a comprehensive policy for development of Homestays across districts of the UT. He called upon them to prepare the document in next one month after having consultations with all the stakeholders.
He underscored the need for developing a new loan product by the financial institutions which would encompass every activity that could be done to promote the homestays in the region. He advised for exploring option for increasing the number of rooms that could be converted into homestay besides the quantum of finance that could be secured for the construction and upgradation of homestays.
Dulloo emphasized that the ambit of this scheme should be widened to accommodate the concerns of the people associated with this tourism practice.
The Chief Secretary also urged the department to make provision for convergence with other schemes like PMEGP, PM Surya Ghar Yojana or other such schemes in the policy for accrual of multiple benefits to the people at grassroots level.
MD and CEO J&K Bank, Amitava Chatterjee, while speaking in the meeting, agreed that there is still scope for refining this loan product to make it more inclusive and attractive for the aspiring population. He also observed that an additional attraction of 1% rebate on the loan could be extended to the customers on prompt repayment of the credit amount.
On the occasion, Commissioner Secretary, Tourism, Yasha Mudgal, reaffirmed that the policy is in its final phase of constitution. She gave out that many of the concerns of the stakeholders had been addressed after consulting them at both Jammu and Srinagar.
Later, the Chief Secretary reviewed the progress on development of an extensive app for better user interface, wholesome information and extension of all facilities at one-stop.
He asked for making it a single stop solution for availing different benefits and bringing various services related to both tourists and service providers under one umbrella app. He further advised to make this app more comprehensive and less confusing arranging services related to different stakeholders separately with timely updation of contents reflecting the changes on ground.
Regarding its development through BISAG-N, Yasha Mudgal demonstrated the phases of its development and the progress achieved so far with the help of several slides. She apprised the meeting that this app would be one of the novel ways to promote J&K tourism for it would be more user-friendly and beneficial for both the tourists and tourism players as well.
MD, JKTDC, Fazlul Haseeb, while throwing light on different features of this application made out that the main objectives to be achieved through its launch would be easy content management, accessibility across all platforms, handy information and better user experience.
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