JAMMU, JUL 9: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister, Kavinder Gupta along with 1008 Mahant Rameshwar Dass and Vijay Mohan Thakur (Yatra-Incharge) flagged off Mata Rudra Ganga Yatra for Dessa in Doda here today.
In his address before flagging off the Yatra, Kavinder said that there are several types of religious destinations and holy places in Jammu and Kashmir which need to be promoted not only as attractive pilgrim tourist destinations, but as attractive destinations for all types of tourists. He said that the government should bring all such religious places on the tourism map of this Union Territory and hold extensive programmes across the nation and abroad to make the people aware about the charming natural beauty of this region. This would undoubtedly have a substantial impact in attracting more tourists to J&K and boosting the economy of the Union Territory, he asserted.
The senior BJP leader said that Jammu and Kashmir has been blessed with the bounty of natural beauty and there are numerous unexplored and serene destinations that have the potential of beating the records of the already famous tourist destinations, but this would be possible only by developing these destinations with proper infrastructure especially in terms of connectivity and facilities to tourists. While religious tourism especially the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine and the holy Shri Amarnath Ji Cave Shrine are the two major destinations that bring every year lakhs of devotees to J&K thus giving it a great economic boost, the boost would be enormous if maximum religious and other tourist destinations are brought on the tourist map at the earliest and promoted extensively to take the tourist foot fall J&K to new heights.
Prominent among others present during the Yatra flagging ceremony were Baldev Singh Vice Chairman; Rakesh Sharma, Vice President; Satish Wazir General Secretary; Mahant Balkrishan Nath, Advocate Joginder Thakur and Sukhdeep Singh Bandral Joint Secretary.