Itanagar: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday advocated a change in mindset of the people to explore the tourism potential of the North-East, including Arunachal Pradesh.
Addressing the inaugural session of the three-day Bomdila Festival-2015, which showcases the unique cultural mosaic of Arunachal, Rijiju said, “People from rest of India are keen to visit NE region but get scared to visit for the negative impact of insurgency.”
Though communication and infrastructure facilities pose problems, what is needed is behavioural change of the people, particularly tour operators to attract tourists,” the Union Minister of State for Home said. He advocated creating mass awareness on how to treat the visitors, what to show them, acquaint them with high altitude problems and send them back to their respective place working “as our brand ambassador”.
“Tourism is known as the largest industry in the world,” he said and called for steps for the tourism sector to take up to benefit the masses by generating revenue and employment.
The Centre releases over Rs 516 crore monthly to the state government, he informed responding to the charge of financial crisis. Rijiju added Union MoS (Finance) Jayant Sinha during his recent Itanagar visit had “discovered” there was no dearth of fund but the state lacked in fund allocation and project implementation.
“I have plans to travel along the Bhalukpong-Baisakhi road to assess if the BRO has fulfilled its promise or not,” he said, adding project for building all border villages, including smallest village of the state will be approved soon. The sooner the state government submits the DPR for roads, the quicker it would be approved, he added. “I have evolved a blueprint for the NE. The border trade with Bleting (Bhutan) and Pangsau Pass (Myanmar) would be introduced soon,” he informed. (PTI)
