Officers don’t know even the concept of ‘Tourist Villages’
*Potential for adventure, heritage tourism remains untapped
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 7: Shocking it may sound but it is a fact that Directorate of Tourism Jammu is completely unaware of the directions issued by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha regarding tapping of tourism potential while participating in the Back to Village (B2V) Programme in the month of October last year.
Moreover, the officers of the Directorate don’t know the concept of ‘Tourist Villages’ about which the Lieutenant Governor talked much in the presence of people and which is one of the key points of the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Policy 2020.
While addressing a public gathering during Back to Village Programme at Kud in Udhampur district on October 7, 2020, the Lieutenant Governor had stated: “Tourism has high growth potential in Udhampur and could be one of the largest employment generators in this district. I am working on a strategic plan for tourism sector in Jammu Kashmir and I am sure with the help of institutional mechanism, we can increase highest employment of workforce in this sector and majority of them would be from our villages”.
Issuing directions to the concerned authorities for immediately working on development of tourism sector in the district, which has enough potential in the form of heritage sites as well as religious and adventure tourism, the Lieutenant Governor had sought Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for development of Dudu, Basantgarh and adjoining areas from tourism promotion point of view. Moreover, he issued instructions for identification of villages to be developed as ‘Tourist Villages’.
However, despite lapse of eight months the explicit directions of the Lieutenant Governor have remained unimplemented. What to talk of initiating action on the instructions of Lieutenant Governor, majority of the officers in the Directorate of Tourism Jammu are completely unaware of the same and this came to the fore when EXCELSIOR contacted them for ascertaining the progress.
While some officers fanned ignorance on the pretext of joining the present place of posting very recently, other officers tried to put ball in the court of different authorities for the reasons best known to them. However, one Engineer, on the condition of anonymity, admitted that not even a single step has been initiated to give practical shape to the directions of the Lieutenant Governor.
“No separate Detailed Project Report for tapping the tourism potential in Dudu, Basantgarh and adjoining areas has been prepared till date”, the Engineer said, adding “may be Directorate is awaiting instructions from the Administrative Department for conducting basic exercise”.
While talking to EXCELSIOR, officers of the Directorate of Tourism Jammu even found unaware of the concept of ‘Tourist Villages’ about the Lieutenant Governor talked much in the presence of people participating in the Back to Village Programme and the then Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, the then Divisional Commissioner Jammu Sanjeev Verma and officers of Udhampur district administration.
Even in the Draft Tourism Policy 2020 the Government has laid much thrust on the development of ‘Tourist Villages’. “The Tourism Department will focus on the development of Rural/ Village Tourism to showcase rural life, art, culture and heritage locations in rural areas. Moreover, stress will be laid on development of home stay facilities for tourists”, read the Policy.
“Because of non-serious approach of the Directorate of Tourism Jammu the immense potential for heritage and adventure tourism in many areas of Udhampur district could not be tapped till date that too even after the explicit directions of the Lieutenant Governor”, official sources said.
Had serious attention been paid towards the directions of Lieutenant Governor well in time, the Detailed Project Reports could have been prepared during the past eight months, they further said, adding “it is really unfortunate that Directorate of Tourism failed to act promptly despite being aware of the fact that preparation of DPRs and their approval are pre-requisite steps to arrange funds for any project”.
“It seems that even senior authorities-be in the Tourism Department or in the divisional administration failed to issue instructions to the Directorate of Tourism for acting on the directions”, sources said.
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