Sonamarg on Srinagar-Baltal road is yet another tourist spot that has fallen victim to land grabbers and selfish builders motivated by stark commercial interests and totally devoid of aesthetic sense. The Tourism Minister, while chairing a meeting of the Sonamarg Development Building Operation and Controlling Authority has issued instructions to all stake holders not to allow unauthorized and haphazard raising of structures in the tourist town of Sonamarg. The fact is that all Tourism Ministers in the past have been doling out same type of threats and pieces of advice but to no effect. Look at Pahalgam once the most prestigious tourist spot and now turned into a slum just because the exhortations of the politicians remain confined to their office files. These are never implemented on the ground. Had there been a powerful enforcing mechanism, the world famous picnic spots in Kashmir would not have turned into slums. We wish that the directions of the Tourism Minister are implemented in letter and in spirit so that further deterioration of tourist spots in Kashmir is arrested. This is possible only when there is strict enforcement of accountability in case of violation of rules. The bane of this department is that there are no rules to hold the violators of laws and punish them accordingly. We are not pessimists and do not look negatively at things. What we say is on the basis of our past experience. May be a new thinking dawns upon the administration to understand that the tourist spots are national wealth and these have to be preserved at any cost.
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