By Our Staff Reporter
Mussoorie, 3 Sep: Union Minister of State for Tourism and Defence Ajay Bhatt met with people associated with the tourism industry here and obtained information about the current situation.
On this occasion, President of Mussoorie Hotel Association, Sanjay Aggarwal, and State President of Uttarakhand Hotel and Restaurant Association, Sandeep Sahni said that due to excessive rains in Mussoorie, recently, and the disasters in Uttarakhand and Himachal, the tourist business has been badly affected. They have had to suffer huge financial loss. They said that the manner in which pictures related to the disaster have been shown in the media by linking Uttarakhand and Himachal, has created panic among the people, but most of the tourist places of Uttarakhand are completely safe where there has been no incident of any kind. There has been no damage or loss of life due to rain. They said that the government needs to spread publicity and make people aware so as to bring Uttarakhand’s tourism business back on track.
While talking to journalists, Union Minister Ajay Bhatt informed the people of the country and abroad that now everything is back on track in all the Himalayan states. Due to heavy rains in Uttarakhand, the rivers were in spate, but there has been no large scale damage or loss of life. He said that there has been a lot of loss due to the disaster in Himachal, but it is slowly getting back on track. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is monitoring the damage and loss of life after the rains. All possible help is being provided to disaster affected states.
He added that due to the disaster in Himachal, the hilly areas of the Himalayan states have suffered a huge loss from the tourism point of view. He reiterated that all Himalayan states are now safe. The Char Dham Yatra is also completely safe. He said that sometimes, due to mountain sliding, the roads get blocked, but the government, administration and related departments remain fully prepared and no road remains closed for long.
He reminded that it is necessary to maintain a balance between environment and technology in any development work and his government is taking special care before carrying out any project to ensure there is no harm to the environment.
