The State Government on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation (JTDC) to facilitate poor and elderly citizens on pilgrimage free of cost under Mukhyamantri Trirth Yatra Yojana. The government would implement the ambitious scheme with the IRCTC and JTDC.
The MoU was signed before Chief Minister Raghubar Das at Project Building on Tuesday. CM stressed on making plans of visiting the tourist spots coming under tourism circuit inside the state. “Those spots which are not connected through train routes should be made accessible by bus routes for the elderly people under this programme. It will help them know each other and will also be able to see each other’s developmental works,” said the CM.
Talking to the media persons after signing of the MoU, Tourism Minister Amar Kumar Bauri said that priority will be given to the pilgrimage spots located inside Jharkhand.
Under this programme, any resident of the state above the age of 60 years coming under BPl category will be facilitated by the State Government to go on pilgrimage twice in his life to the destinations located both inside and outside the state with a precondition that there must be a gap of two years between the two pilgrimages.
According to the plan, first batch of 1000 pilgrims will be taken to Puri and Bhubneshwar in November this year. Under this programme, the Government will make arrangement for pilgrimage to all states of all religion. A logo of Tirth Darshan Yojana was also launched by the Chief Minister on the occasion.
Talking to media persons IRCTC Chairman cum Managing Director Arun Kumar Manocha informed that the company has also been arranging pilgrimage in other states also and it was the first time that a MoU was being signed with the Jharkhand Government. “IRCTC was committed towards the pilgrimage safely,” he said.
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J’khand inks MoU with IRCTC, JTDC for pilgrimage scheme
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During the pilgrimage, IRTCTC will take care of all their needs of fooding and lodging including health issues. Several Para Medical volunteers will also be deputed along with them so that proper care could be taken during the journey.
Places which have been listed for pilgrimage includes – Rajrappa, Deoghar, Sammed Shikher, Basukinath, Maluti and Itkhori in Jharkhand while destinations outside the state includes places like – Dwarika, Puri, Bhubneshwar, Tirupati, Madurai, Remeshwaram, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Vaishno Devi, Jammu, Shirdi, Amritsar, Agra, Fetehpur Shikri, Amritsar, Shravan Belgola, Belantini Church, Nagpattanam etc, he said.
Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma, Tourism Secretary Satendra Kumar Singh, Tourism Director Prasad Krishna Waghmare and several other officials were also present during the occasion.
later taking to the media persons separately at Railway Guest House, IRCTC CMD Manocha said that they offer package deal for the pilgrims as per the requirement raised by the state government under which everything is taken care of during the tour by them including food, lodging and health issues.
“Every pilgrim will also get an insurance coverage of Rs 10 lakh in case of death due to accident while travelling………. We have also been running such trains for pilgrims under Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojana in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. In Punjab alone, as many as 101 trains are being run under this programme,” said Manocha.
The CMD also announced that Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad Stations will soon get world class executive lounges having facilities like Wi-Fi connectivity along with TV and music in it on the lines of lunges available at Airports.
In addition to that, Ranchi and Hatia Stations will also get Water ATMs very soon where people can get drinking water at a rate of Rs 5 per liter though automatic vending machines.
“We have also decided to involve as many as 15-20 thousand self help groups all over India to run water ATMs where they will be given ATMs to run them and share the profit coming from it among themselves,” said Manocha. Till now only A1 and A category stations did have these water ATMs, he said.