As a policy matter, the Union Ministry of Tourism decided to develop one tourist circuit in each State. At the back of the mind of the Ministry was the development of religious circuit and it best suited Jammu region. The State Government came forward with a revised project one each of the three regions and captioned it as religious, Sufi and Buddhist circuits. That is fine and certainly speaks of diversity of the three regions and hence the three instead of one circuit. But the question is of funding. Union Tourism Ministry has allocated 50 crore rupees for each state for a sole circuit. But the State Government demands three circuits each of 50 crore making 150 crore in all. Expressing its inability to provide this much amount in one go, the Union Ministry suggested the State Government either to prioritize the circuit or amalgamate all the three in one within the stipulated allocation. However the State Tourist Department would not want to budge.
This is a piquant situation. Insistence on three regional circuits in one State would naturally encourage some more states in the Indian Union to clamour for the same favour. It is rather weak argument that the J&K should be given special treatment on the basis of demographic consideration. Tourism and demography are not inter-dependent as these are two different areas. The State Government is not prepared to prioritize the religious circuit which is exclusive to Jammu region. The reason for giving Jammu region the priority is as this. This region has more composite religious-cultural sites. The number of religious tourists to shrines and temples and ziarats in Jammu region is much larger than to any other region. Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine alone attracted nearly 1.20 crore people this year and the number is expected to increase manifold with the opening of Udhampur-Katra rail link coming spring. Jammu region has remained neglected in terms of development of tourist spots whether in religious or cultural or historical circuits. As such it has a very strong case for consideration on priority basis.
The more essential point is that the Union Ministry of Tourism has not rejected the importance of other two circuits namely Sufi and Buddhist. It is a matter of time and the State Government is advised not to be hasty as that would not be advisable. Even clubbing all the three circuits would be vey unwise thing to do. Let us do one thing at a time and not make hotchpotch of the entire affair. The case of negligence of Jammu region for development of tourist industry has been raised a number of times in the Legislative Assembly. The Government has been making sustained commitment of bringing Jammu also on the tourist map of the State. Now that a chance has come under a specific scheme of the Union Ministry of Tourism, it would be utterly unwise to squander away the scheme. The question of prioritizing the religious circuit should be accepted and implemented and as the process is initiated, the next step of the Government would be to pull the strings for Sufi and then Buddhist circuits. It has also to be noted that while Kashmir enjoys the world-wide fame for natural resorts and spots, it does not enjoy the inflow of tourists for Sufi circuit to the extent Mata Vaishno Devi enjoys. Yes of course the holy cave shrine of Amarnath atop the Himalayan heights does receive large number of religious pilgrims but the site does not fall within the ambit of Sufi circuit.
We would like to suggest the State Government to change its stance on the issue and not take any decision in haste that would spoil the entire project. It has a strong reason to choose Jammu region as religious circuit on priority and grab the first opportunity of implementing the scheme. As this circuit shows progress, it will automatically pave the wave for other two circuits. No hard posturing is needed on an issue that can be resolved with a little of patience and sagacity.
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