Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 6: To discuss the plight of tourism stakeholders, a meeting of members of All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association (AJHLA) was held here today.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Inderjeet Khajuria, Chairman of AJHLA.
Speaking on the occasion, Khajuria said that the Jammu and Kashmir government is ignoring the tourism sector in Jammu region, which is passing through its worst phase because of almost zero business.
Pawan Gupta, President of AJHLA lauded the decision of government to hold Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra this year for 38 days, commencing from 3rd July instead of two months duration earlier.
The association is of the view that this pious Yatra in future can be held not for 38 days but for 138 days or more if the government takes an initiative to protect the natural ice Lingam which starts melting at a very early stage due to natural inhaling and exhaling process of lakhs of devotees performing Baba Burfani darshan and flying of helicopters, etc.
“This can be done by making use of curtain raiser or glass slab, thereby, maintaining temperature near natural ice Lingam as proposed in the report formulated during the year 2003 by IIT and DRDO,” he said.
Gupta said, “The tourism industry in Jammu is already on ventilator since the extension of train service from Jammu to Katra and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji pilgrims are going directly to Katra bye- passing Jammu. Presently only 30 to 35 % of Shri Amarnath devotees are going to Amarnath by passing through Jammu and very soon, Kashmir is going to get connected directly with rest of India and devotees will prefer to go directly to Kashmir rather than visiting Jammu.The clouds of business adversity are hovering over Jammu tourism industry.”
The association appealed the government to come forward to the rescue of Jammu tourism industry by taking necessary measures to develop Jammu as an independent tourist destination, otherwise Jammu would be wiped out from tourism map.
Among others who attended the meeting included M L Sharma, Anil Khajuria, Pritam Sharma, H S Manhas, Baldev Raj, Sunil Suri, Swarn Singh, Ankit Gupta and Varun Gupta.
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