Full support will be given by Tourism Ministry in preparing a new Tourism Policy for Ladakh : Prahlad Singh Patel

5 Dariya News

Leh 05-Sep-2019

On the third day of Leh tour, the Minister of State for Culture & Tourism (Independent charge), Shri Prahlad Singh Patel held a meeting with all local stakeholders related  to tourism sector in Ladakh. DG tourism Smt. Meenakshi Sharma; ADG tourism Ms. Rupinder Brar; Principal SecretaryTourism(J&K), Shri Naveen Kumar Chaudhry  andsenior officers of Ministry of tourism and Officialsof local bodies were present in the meeting.Speaking on the occasion, the Minster announced that the Ministry of  Tourism will provide full support to the local administration in preparing a new Tourism Policy for  Ladakh. He also assured them that if needed, the Ministry people will  visit every month to Ladakh to provide their support and help regarding this matter.The Minister also said that right now Ladakh region has only 14 monuments under ASI  protection and the Ministry is willing to increase it to double or triple fold.. He further added that there are several many unknown yet important monuments available in  Leh and Kargil regions which can be protected by ASI.

In the meeting, the local stakeholders appreciated Minister’s initiative to visit Ladakh and hold fruitful meetings. They demanded support of Government of India in  various matters like better connectivity, better infrastructure, rebate in taxation to boost tourism industry, to promote village tourism and adventure tourism among  others. The Union Minister assured them that the Ministry and Government of India have taken their demands positively and full support will be provided to Ladakh to  enable quality tourism in order to make it one of the best tourist destinations in the world .The Meeting started with a presentation given by ShriVikas Rustagi, Joint  Director General, Ministryof Tourism regarding roadmap to boost tourism in Ladakh region. In the presentation it was showcased that Ladakh has great potential to  attract tourists from across the globe and we need to capitalize the opportunity with better planning. He said that, a special place has been given to Ladakh under  Incredible India campaign and we will give more focus to promote it across the world through various platforms.