In a recent meeting of Tourism Department, the Minister for Tourism was given an appraisal of the Naagarnagar-Watlab tourism circuit proposed under the programme of Development of Mega Tourism Circuit at a cost of 38.14 crore rupees. The project has a number of auxiliaries and many of these have been already taken up while some have been brought to completion. Tourism is considered the mainstay of Kashmir economy and as such importance of developing mega projects cannot be underestimated. The satisfying thing is that numerous aspects of tourism relevant to the valley tourist industry are being pursued. From the meeting in which top officials participated, one could draw the inference that there was no paucity of funds for carrying forward the tourist development projects. But what was needed was the submission of expenditures incurred on a certain project and the completion report which would entitle the Tourist Department to ask the Centre for release of subsequent installments of payment.
One can say that the department has a comprehensive programme of development of tourism in hand and the authorities are very much interested that these projects should be competed within the stipulated time. It has to be noted that the livelihood of millions of people in the valley depends on flourishing tourism. More people will get involved in tourist activity. We have to develop the tourist culture also. The Department should have a scheme with it according to which various categories of services connected with tourism are streamlined and brought on modern lines. Just making blue prints of projects and publicizing these through media would not mean much for ordinary people who are looking for a source of livelihood in the industry. The state needs to cater to their requirements and aspirations. We have, in a number of earlier editorials on State tourism laid emphasis on two things. One is that the manpower recruited in tourism department has to be highly trained and made adepts in the profession because tourism is an advanced industry all over the world. Secondly, development of tourism should be uniform throughout the regions of the State. No region can have well developed tourist industry at the cost of another region. We agree that all the three regions cannot have similar and equal potential for tourist intake. But it does not mean that Ladakh and Jammu regions should be abandoned. There are numerous dimensions of tourist industry and the dimensions that are available in other regions should also be explored and exploited.
We hope that the Minister of Tourism is disposed to give just and equitable treatment to all the three regions and sub- regions in the State when the over-arching programme of development of tourism in the State is discussed for approval.
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