Excelsior Correspondent
KATRA, Aug 29: A delegation of Hotel & Restaurant Association, Katra, led by its president Rakesh Wazir and chairman Shyam Lal Kesar, called on the new Chief Executive Officer Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Jitender Kumar Singh and emphasized that for the better management of the Yatra, recommendations of action report of Parvez Dewan be implemented in letter and spirit.
Wazir said that the time has come when we should come out of this false myth that the Vaishno Devi Yatra is but bound to happen and go on increasing without our efforts. “Now the pilgrims of this age want to have good facilities and the better management of the institutions and this is the only reason that once the famous and only religious pilgrimage places of India like Char Dhams etc became stagnant in the increase in Yatra and the far lesser known pilgrimage places with better management have registered increase by many folds.
“Vaishno Devi Yatra was 104.95 lakh in 2012 and it decreased continuously reaching to 78.03 lakh in 2014. The number is almost stagnant since then, which is very alarming,” he said and added that all out efforts are required to be made to increase the facilities, infrastructure besides long term strategy in this regard.
Rakesh Wazir suggested that good publicity in the shape of Festivals, very liberal policy for film shootings, etc will also prove to be a boon in this regard.
Kesar said that it was really strange that other State Governments and countries were giving incentives to films for shooting in such places, whereas the State was highly charging from them for shooting over here. “We should keep in mind that Vaishno Devi pilgrimage got major boost after the shooting of the famous Avtar film’s song `Chalo Bulawa Aaya Hai’ and Asha film’s famous song `Tune Mujhe Bulaya Sheran Waliye, Main Aaya Main Aaya Sheran Waliye,” he said and also emphasized on increasing the stay of the Yatries by diverting them to other places of tourist interests, streamlining of Ponies, Pithus, Palkis etc.
Jitender Kumar Singh listened the delegation patiently and assured that sympathetic consideration would be made to each and every point referred in the discussion.
The delegation comprised of Virender Kesar, Kuldeep Dubey, Ajay Kotwal, Karan Wazir, Sumit Khajuria, Vivek Sharma and Manohar Lal.
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