By our correspondent, New Delhi, 23 March 2013

Now this is something that needs thorough dissection. At least the Gujarat government should check this. During the 11th plan period (year 2007-08 to 2011-12) the Government of India sanctioned Rs 4090.31 crore money for various states for the purpose of tourism development. Of them the highest amount of Rs 391.27 crore was sanctioned for 145 approved tourism projects in Jammu & Kashmir, while Andhra Pradesh stood on the second position and saw sanction to Rs 244.62 crore for 52 approved projects.

But when it comes to Gujarat, the total number of approved projects by centre was only 17, and sanctioned amount was just Rs 86.36. Even a small state like Sikkim saw approval of 86 tourism projects worth Rs 213.68 crore, which was much more than Gujarat.

The projects were relating to product/infrastructure development for destinations and circuits (PIDDC), human resource development (HRD), fairs and festivals and adventure and rural tourism.

Now coming to some fresh figures. Even in year 2012(upto 31st December), Jammu and Kashmir was on top, so far as number of approved projects and sanctioned money in question. While Gujarat received approval to only one tourism project worth Rs 4.87 crore, Jammu and Kashmir’s 24 projects worth Rs 96.69 crore were approved. Much smaller Delhi found approval to two projects worth Rs 24.62 crore. Andhra Pradesh received approval to 8 projects worth Rs 59.08 crore.

The Gujarat government needs to check following things:

-How many projects were proposed before the centre?
-How many of them were disapproved and what were the reasons?
-Did Gujarat govt send enough proposals/projects?
-Were the proposals that had been sent, not properly prepared or submitted? In that case what corrective actions the govt intends to take?
-If good number of proposals were sent, and they were deserving approval, and if approval was rejected by unfair means, what steps should be taken in this regard in future?
-Why Andhra Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir get maximum benefit of the scheme continuously year-by-year?

🗃️ This story is from our archives and may contain outdated information.