Motives and wilful aberrations can be attributed to paint and sketch the whole of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh as Kashmir only. We are here reminded of the historically but knowingly committed political goof of even calling the Radio Station of Jammu as Radio Kashmir Jammu , the logic of prefixing Kashmir with Jammu when operated from Jammu is beyond comprehension. Equally is it baffling, thanks to the all encompassing, peace loving, accommodative and broad minded people of Jammu, in not opposing the redundant and unwanted prefixing of the name of summer capital with the name of the Jammu station. As proverbial push coming to shove, it is observed that the uninterrupted tourists flow mainly religious tourism in Jammu should otherwise have been appreciated and encouraged by the State Government, is instead being looked at with suspicion and prejudicial eyes. If a healthy competition between the two main divisions of the state to increase the tourist flow would have been ensured even if with envy for Jammu tourism turnover, it would have been taken in positive perspective but employing those means and measures which are fraught with discouraging Jammu tourism can never be taken lightly. We have reasons to substantiate the basis of such apprehensions and hunches.
Why has the Tourism Department of the State Government decided to virtually block and opaque the branches of publicity of places of tourist importance of this region even on social media by sketching and painting the whole of Jammu and Kashmir as (troubled) Kashmir only. Is it not an established fact that even barring a few districts only, even the entire Kashmir region is not affected by Pakistani sponsored violence? By brushing the whole of the state with the same colour under an avoidable but wholly unjustified agenda is tantamount to force Jammu to keep suffering and feel being under the dominance and overpowering of Kashmir centric political manoeuvring. It is rueable that this peculiar type of scenario stacked with uncalled for motives, should escape the attention of the Governor’s administration as presently the state is under the President’s (Governor’s ) rule.
Again, why should fears not be nursed by Jammu region as to why has, all of a sudden the publicity wing of Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department decided to be over smart and emerge ‘wise’ in closing the social media account of Tourism Jammu and decided to have one single social media account for both the Directorates of Tourism? Is that wing or Committee so overburdened with the work load and perhaps burning mid-night oil in promoting tourism of the state that instead of two, only one social media account is decided to be kept operational and live? Has by such a decision, a large amount of funds been saved in order to resort to promoting austere measures in Government spending?
The answer to these genuine points being on obvious lines, only vindicates our fears which if not taken a note of seriously, had ramifications of boomeranging nature. We, therefore, do not approve of or endorse in any manner whatsoever, least lend our support to the decision reportedly taken in this context during a meeting held a few days back under the chairmanship of Commissioner /Secretary Tourism Department which should forthwith be reversed and the same shared with the media to allay the generated fears in the people of Jammu. The State Government should feel proud of and give wide publicity to the fact that Jammu region is fast developing as a prominent Tourist hub which speaks for over 1.6 crore tourists from across the country having visited this region in the year 2018.
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