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.