To boost hotel industry in the State, Chief Minister Harish Rawat has pledged to do away with the entertainment tax on it while participating in the annual general meeting of Hotels and Restaurants’ Associations of Uttarakhand at JP Hotel Mussoorie on Monday.
“State Governments, Ministers and bureaucrats keep on changing with time unlike the industrialists who stay put despite such changes,” he said, and asked the hoteliers to suggest some consolidated solutions of the problems they are facing. “Hoteliers should use their entrepreneurship skills in the remotes regions of Uttarakhand to speed up development,” CM said.
CM Rawat said that the state government would play promoter to put into place the requisite infrastructure so as to solve the problems the hotel industry is facing.
CM disclosed that at the district level, a body has been constituted to clear the proposals worth upto Rs 10 crore. They would be led by the district magistrates while another body has been constituted at government level to be chaired by the chief secretary to approve all the investment proposals worth over Rs 10 crore, he said.
CM said the state government has directed Forest Corporation to develop cycle treks, water bodies, lakes and the like. Those running the hotel Industry should work in tandem with the forest department, he said.
CM appreciated the Tourism Investment and Promotion Policy as suggested by the hoteliers. The Trans- Himalayan regions hitherto outside the tourism circuit happen to be more beautiful than the regions already discovered. “We need to think out of the box. We need to harness possibilities latent in tourism sector. Currently, our tourism activities are mainly concentrated in Mussoorie and Nainital. We need to decentralise tourism,” he said while asking the hoteliers to focus on the hitherto un-trodden places.
“State government is now focusing on the other dimensions of tourism in Uttarakhand through cultural Uttarakhand, Winter Chardham, local food promotion, organisation of local fairs and the like. They are paying good dividends,” he claimed.
CM sounded concerned over a section of media leaving negative images of State. “Such a negative approach is bad,” adding the tourism reviving in one year after the deluge is incredible. Tourism minister Dinesh Dhanai, principal secretary Umakant Pawar, Mussoorrie Municipality chairperson Manmohan Mall were among the dignitaries present.