By N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC
The tourism industry has something to cheer for in this year’s budget. Our Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his budget speech, made a mention on the subject of tourism, a very significant step indeed. Presenting the budget- 2018, Jaitley said “India is blessed with abundance of tourist attractions, so it is proposed to develop ten prominent tourist sites in iconic tourism destinations by following a holistic approach, involving infrastructure and skill development, developing of technology, attracting private investment, branding and marketing. Jaitley also added “in addition, tourist amenities at 100 Adarsh monuments of the Archaeological Survey of India will be upgraded to enhance the visitor experience.” It must be noted that in 2015, the asi had identified 25 monuments for the “Adarsh Smarak Scheme” for upgradation of tourist-related amenities, some of these monuments include the Qutub Minar, Hampi in Karnataka, Konarak temple in Orissa. A right step in the right direction. It is better to concentrate on select destinations which attract international, domestic tourists and develop them instead of trying to develop all destinations at one go. Spreading the butter thin does not help. Excellent news for the industry. Now the most important thing is where do we, the city of Mysuru, fit in these schemes? In a later meeting with the CEOs, Jaitley mentioned that the modalities of identifying the scheme etc., has been left to the Tourism Ministry. It is time for lobbying. The Department of Tourism, Karnataka, has to proactively lobby with the Central Ministry to ensure that the Hampi-Hassan-Mysuru circuit is included in that list. With elections due in May, the Government of India may be favourably inclined to any request from Karnataka. The Department of Tourism is flush with funds, they only require good Detailed Project Reports . Having worked in the Ministry I have seen some pathetic dprs given by some State governments. The biggest advantage of Central funding is that fifty percent of the approved amount is sent in advance to the State Ministry. It is suggested that the following works can be taken up with Central funding for Mysuru:
