Country’s major hotels and the Government-approved tour operators will soon join Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Clean India Mission. The Union Tourism Ministry is mulling to persuade them to adopt roads, roundabouts and historical places and monuments to ensure their cleanliness in their cities.
“We are in the process of identifying a list of hotels and tour operators that can be approached to do their bit by adopting roads, roundabouts or monuments in their vicinity or to their choices,” said a senior tourism Ministry official.
There are over 400 major tour operators and 4,000 classified hotels ranking five or four stars among others across the country. The Ministry is hopeful to rope in as many as possible for the success of the Modi’s ‘Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan’ as it did for its own Clean India campaign launched last year by former Tourism Minister Chiranjeevi. Under the campaign, major oil PSU, ONGC agreed to maintain cleanliness and hygiene at six tourist destinations across the country.
ONGC has been asked to adopt six monuments — Taj Mahal at Agra, Ellora Caves and Elephanta Caves in Maharashtra, Red Fort in Delhi, Golkonda Fort in Hyderabad and Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu. It has already committed to provide Rs20.75 crore for conservation and cleanliness of Taj Mahal.
In fact, the ONGC, under the ‘Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan’, has already agreed to build toilet blocks in more than 2,500 Government schools in 26 districts spread over 13 States during the current financial year at a cost of Rs100 crore, the official said.
The Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) will adopt toilets in a few schools within the ambit of cleanliness under its corporate social responsibility, he added.
Besides asking the hotels and tour operators, each Food Craft Institute (FCI) and Central Institute for Hotel Management (CIHM) will also be asked to pitch in by adopting the roads around their campuses for cleanliness. Similarly the IHMs and FCIs will be given responsibilities to strengthen the hygiene/cleanliness component in the curricula across all the courses.
Welcoming the Ministry’s initiative, Subash Goyal, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) said the association is already a part of Clean India campaign and recently “we agreed to provide dustbins at all over the tourists places across the country. We have also suggested best cleanliness award for municipality for the success of the mission,” he added.