GUREZ, MAY 28: Minster for
Tourism, Tassaduq Hussain Mufti took an exhaustive tour to Gurez, Tulail Valley
to explore recent approaches to policy-making and exploring possibilities of
further developing the picturesque border area of the state.
The Minister who
was on 3-day visit to Gurez and Tulail Valley visited various spots including
Izmarg, Bagtoure, Barnoi, Zidgay, Purana Tulail, Dungthal Tulail, Sheikhpora,
Badugam Lower, Badugam Top, Sardaab, Tatun Sardaab, Khutrin, Buglinder,
Hassangam, Baduaab and Anaikote.
District
Development Commissioner Bandipora Khursheed Ahmad Sanaie, Director Tourism
Mahmood A Shah, sectorial and district officers also accompanied the Minister.
The Minister sought
details about the departmental assets, their upgradation and renovation,
capacity building programmes, waste management and other activities being taken
up by the concerned for the development of the area.
The Minster
expressed strong concern over the eroded hillsides, stressed the need for
adopting bioengineering techniques to address the problem.
The Minister
stressed the need to develop and preserve aesthetically rich heritage and
natural resources of the area, the Minister directed DDC Bandipora to make
teams and conduct regular recce to set a system in place for everyday
grievances.
He laid emphasis on
the need to organize skill development and capacity building programs to
boost tourism in the area and to encourage locals to opt for paying guest
accommodation, travel guiding, adventures sports and other tour and travel
related activities.
Expressing his
displeasure over the dilapidated condition of Bandipora -Gurez -Tulail and
other Rural as well as urban roads of the district, the Minister asked
concerned engineers to improve the quality of engineering and produce good
quality of roads.
The Minister also
stressed the need for Hill Stabilization, conservation of environment and
resources and to avoid inconvenience faced by the people travelling to the
area, besides protecting picturesque hillsides. He asked NHPC
authorities to remove the accumulated debris at the dam site of Power Project
which has polluted the local environment.
Tassaduq
Mufti also took review of sanitation facilities and directed the
concerned officers for creating proper Waste Disposal Management across the
district to improve hygiene.
He stressed for holistic
development to attract more tourists to the area without
disturbing the natural essence of a place and its surrounding ecology and
asked for maintaining rich heritage, habitat, diverse flora and fauna
existing in the area.
The Minister
asked for taking innovative measures to promote niche tourism activities,
besides preparing a fresh roadmap to strengthen the tourism industry in the
area by integrating leisure, adventure and heritage tourism.
He said that the
ground staff service should also be improved so that they could serve in a more
professional manner, besides taking care of landscape, plantation, sanitation
and proper waste management.
The Minister also
visited various schools in the vicinity and found the infrastructure is not
maintained up to the mark to meet the standard to impart proper education and
basic skills among students.
Stressing the need
for making education qualitative, the Minister questioned Chief Education
Officer, Bandipora about the challenges he is facing at primary school level
and asked him to streamline the system by improving the quality of education
across the district.
During the visit,
the Minister also convened a meeting of officers in Gurez to review of the
status development process works being executed by various agencies in the
area. He stressed upon the need for improving coordination among departments
including BEACON, PWD R&B, UEED, PHE, RDD, PDD, Health, Education and
Tourism Department so that target achieving mechanism can be
initiated.
The Minister met various delegations during the tour and interacted with
the locals and tourism stakeholders of the area. He gave patient hearing to the
grievances and issues raised by them.
