The Hindu : Mufti in U.P., woos tour operators

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2003

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Other States - Uttar Pradesh

Mufti in U.P., woos tour operators

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW JULY 16. The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, today asked the Uttar Pradesh tour operators to organise seven or nine-day packages instead of five-day tours for visitors from the State. He assured them that the tourism department of Jammu and Kashmir would offer an additional two-day package to Pahalgam or Gulmarg for them and even bear the cost. The host State would help the operators create more cost-effective packages for tourists, he said.

Talking to newspersons here at a Meet the Press programme at the UP Press Club, Mr. Sayeed said that compared to last year the number of tourists arriving in J and K had gone up by 800 times. That itself was an indicator of normalcy had returned.

His efforts would be to restore the State's attraction for tourists to its past level, he said.

He would be now visiting Kolkata to invite tourists from West Bengal during the Puja holidays he said and added that he had plans to visit other States also.

Mr. Sayeed said that despite stray incidents, the general atmosphere in the Valley had improved. "The rush of pilgrims for the Amarnath Yatra was unprecedented this year. The Government had made arrangements for 1.20 lakh pilgrims but the actual number of visitors went up much beyond the figure,'' he said.

The Chief Minister said his "healing touch'' policy had shown expected results. It had been approved by the Prime Minister as well as the Congress.

It was now a part of the national consensus. People wanted peace and the Prime Minister's initiative had been well received.

Replying to a question, he said his government had already taken up the job of rehabilitating Kashmiri Pandits. Unless they were able to return to the Valley, the process of normalisation would remain incomplete, he remarked. Some of his plans conceived for the welfare of the Kashmiri Pandits were job reservations and building of cluster homes for them, he said.

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Mufti in U.P., woos tour operators