Major push to tourism: Minister to address function today
Forest Minister clears 10 major roads in Ladakh
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 25:With a view to boost tourism and development and strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions in the Union Territory of Ladakh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and two senior Cabinet Ministers will be in Leh on August 27 while Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development G Kishan Reddy will address tourism players in the UT virtually from New Delhi as Parliamentary Committee on Housing and Urban Development Department headed by Jagdambika Pal reached Leh and reviewed urban development with top officials of the administration and Hill Development Council.
This is for the first time that such a large number of Central Ministers and Parliamentary Committees are visiting the Union Territory of Ladakh. Few days back, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs and Public Accounts Committee had visited Ladakh while another Committee on Commerce is also scheduled to visit Leh.
Highly placed sources told the Excelsior that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Jal Shakti Minister Gajender Singh Shekhawat and Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey will be visiting Leh on August 27 to discuss strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
They will address function on the PRIs in which Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh Radha Krishna Mathur, CEC-cum-Chairperson Leh Hill Development Council Tashi Gyalson and CEC-cum-Chairperson of Kargil Hill Development Council Feroz Khan will also be present.
Describing visit of the Lok Sabha Speaker and two Cabinet Ministers along with him as very significant, sources said their presence and study of situation in the Union Territory of Ladakh will definitely give push to overall development of the UT besides strengthening the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Sources expressed confidence that visit of the Speaker and two senior Cabinet Ministers will help in further empowerment of the Panchayati Raj Institutions in Ladakh.
Meanwhile, National Board for Wildlife Welfare has given clearance for construction of 10 roads in Ladakh.
This was announced by Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh Radha Krishna Mathur in a tweet.
Extending gratitude to Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate change and Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav for clearance of roads, Mathur tweeted: “this will speed up pace of development activities in the region”.
Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development and North East Development G Kishan Reddy will be virtually addressing a function for tourism promotion in Ladakh tomorrow.
“The objective of the event is to promote Ladakh as a tourist destination with focus on aspects of adventure, culture and responsible tourism The event aims to provide indigenous product knowledge to the industry stakeholders and also a platform to local stakeholders for interaction with the tour operators/buyers from rest of the country,” an official statement said.
The three days’ event will include activities like exhibition, panel discussions, B2B meetings, technical tours, cultural evening to showcase tourism facilities and tourism products of Ladakh.
The event named as “Ladakh: New Start, New Goals” is being organized in Leh from 26th -28th August 2021. During the event “A Tourism Vision for Ladakh” document would be unveiled which focuses on overall development of the Ladakh UT. The document envisioned promoting tourism in the backdrop of sustainable ecological practices, building on local material and human resources. Member of Parliament of Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal; Secretary of Tourism & Culture, UT Ladakh K Mehboob Ali Khan; Secretary of Ministry of Tourism, GoI Arvind Singh and other dignitaries will also attend the event.
The Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India in collaboration with Department of Tourism, Administration of Union Territory of Ladakh and Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) is organizing the event.
“Domestic tourism plays an important role in the overall development of the tourism sector in India. Ministry of Tourism undertakes various promotional activities for the promotion of domestic tourism and these activities are primarily aimed at increasing awareness about tourism destinations and products, promoting domestic tourism with focus on priority areas like the North East, Union Territory of Ladakh and Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
“Even though the COVID 19 pandemic has impacted the world in an unprecedented manner and brought it to a standstill, the signs of recovery have been witnessed and the movement of people across the country has started and every means of travel i.e. airlines, trains and highways has reported regular increase in visitors’ traffic in the domestic tourism segment. The Ministry has aggressively started tourism promotions with participation of the industry stakeholders. Ministry of Tourism has been promoting Ladakh in domestic as well as in international markets through various campaigns and initiatives such as Dekho Apna Desh wherein a dedicated webinar on Ladakh was conducted. Promotion of Ladakh is also undertaken through Incredible India Website, Social Media platforms of the Ministry, printing of flyers etc,” the statement said.
The event is expected to be attended by approximately 150 participants who include opinion makers, tour operators, hoteliers, diplomats, home stay owners, senior officials from Government of India and UT Administration of Ladakh.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee on Urban Development Depart-ment headed by Jagdambika Pal today reached Leh and met senior officers of Ladakh UT administration and Chairman-cum-CEC of Leh Hill Development Council Tashi Gyalson.
They discussed various aspects of Urban development in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
The Committee will be in Leh for two days.
Few days back, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by veteran Congress leader Anand Sharma and Public Account Committee led by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary had also visited Ladakh.
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