Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 14: PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sham Choudhary today said being a border resident, he wished borders become permanent tourist destinations and vibrant economic units and let fairs and festivals replace guns and bullets.
He stated this during visit to Suchetgarh.
Sham dwelt in detail on the prospects of turning borders into permanent tourist destinations. He said “if we are able to divert even 15-20 percent of visitors towards these beautiful border villages, economy in these areas would get a major boost”.
Referring to ex-Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Sham said “even visionary leader late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed wished to see tourists flocking border villages. He desired to inaugurate a mega cultural event at zero line of Indo-Pak border”.
He underlined need for creating requisite infrastructure in the border areas and then, ensuring that border tourist destinations are advertised on such a scale that after temples of Jammu and gardens of Kashmir, people visit the borders of Suchetgarh, R.S. Pura, Arnia and other areas.
He hoped that Pakistan should realize its folly of importing terror to India and instead of firing on the borders, should dismantle terror infrastructure.
“This would like supplementing efforts of State Government in making borders new tourist destinations of Jammu and Kashmir,” said Sham.
He further said that borders should attract people from all over the country not only J&K. He went on to say that Jammu has beautiful border villages and if there is permanent peace, people would throng in huge numbers to find out what kind of life of people on the border villages live and how beautiful our borders are.
Meanwhile, enlisting the welfare schemes for the farmer community, Sham said that several welfare schemes have been initiated by the Centre and the State Government including Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMBY) for the benefits of farmers. The Minister, earlier, planted a sapling at the zero line in presence of MLA RS Pura Dr Gagan Bhagat.
Various multi lingual cultural programmes were also presented, which were the centre of attraction for the people who attended the festival. Various Government departments had also installed their stalls to display the information related to their area.
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