Mir Farhat
SRINAGAR, Nov 17: Minister for Tourism Ghulam Ahmad Mir today said that it is not upto Tourism Department to get the Tosamaidan land vacated from Army to make it accessible for tourists.
“When and who vacates the Tosamaidan land, it is not up to us,” Mir said talking to reporters at SKICC while making announcement of Mushaira being held there on November 19.
“But we are making our efforts to develop the land into a tourist spot, and the process for constituting Tosamaidan Development Authority is under way,” he said.
The 3,000 kanal Tosamaidan is a lush meadow in central Kashmir’s Budgam district that sprawls from the district upto Baramulla in North, Shopian and Poonch in South Kashmir, and was leased to Army in 1964 for training purposes like shelling and firing.
The meadow has stoked up a row since the lease ended in 2004, with people demanding the Army to vacate the land and it be made a tourist resort.
He said the “Kul Hind Mushaira” titled “ek sham Kashmir ke naam” will be held on November 19 at Sheri Kashmir International Convention Centre.
“The special event which will be first of its kind, if successful, will be a great leap in promoting tourism of the State. Poets, writers, have a great role to play in promoting tourism,” Mir said.
He underlined the role of poets and writers, saying their participation in promoting tourism would be immense.
“Till now, we have ignored the role of this tribe, but some people suggested to us to organize one such event. The event will get us lot of returns for many years to come, even more than what we attempt by other means,” he said, adding about 16 poets from outside the State, and some from the State will take part in the ‘Mushaira’.
While naming few poets who will participate, Mir said Waseem Baralevi, Munawar Rana, Rahat Indoori are among those from outside state who will be participating, and Farooq Nazki, Rafiq Raaz, Jalees Sheerwani, Rukshana Jabeen are among those from the state.
The poets will be arriving on November 18 (Monday), and will visit the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg on Tuesday before commencing the Mushaira at 4 pm on the same day.
“The poets after visiting Kashmir will have a different point of view which, hopefully, they will present to the outside world. This will help in promotion of Kashmir’s tourism,” he said.
“We are contemplating to hold an exclusive Kashmiri-language Mushaira in near future to encourage our own poets and boost tourism through their language”, said the Minister.
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