A Parliamentary panel has expressed concern over the recent incidents of attacks on tourists in different parts of the country and recommended that safety measures should be strictly implemented and monitored at different levels. It also said the sky rocketing airfares are making journey unaffordable for many and called for reducing user charges at airports.
The Centre should persuade/help each State Government to set up tourism police and crack down on touts and goons at various tourist destinations and provide safety at airports and railway stations.
A 24x7 info line in foreign languages is a welcome step to attract the tourists, but the Tourism Ministry should ensure that people manning it are capable and services are available at ease. It should assist the tourists whenever they want, said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture in its report submitted to Parliament on Friday.
It has also flayed the Government for progressive reduction in allocation for tourism infrastructure development since 2011-12. The current year allocation stands reduced at Rs 400 crore, it lamented and blamed the guidelines for fund disbursal under which spending pattern in the first quarter becomes the criteria for subsequent disbursal. It said that a scheme/project lagging behind in its execution should not be reason to deny funds to other schemes/ project of the State.
Since most of the repair work of monuments cannot be done during monsoon, the spending is less till September which further reduces the disbursal of funds, Panel chairman Sitaram Yechury pointed out.
Unlike other countries, India has very few monuments in the World Heritage list, which could get them international funds, so steps should be taken to correct this. The money collected from tickets for monuments should be utilised for their upkeep and maintenance and not sent to consolidated fund of India as is the present practice, it said. It stressed the need for more cruise tourism projects on lines of Cochin port and deputing trained people at adventure tourism spots.