PREM PRAKASH UPADHYAY ‘NATURAL’
Seeing the plight of all the tourist places under Kumaon division, one thing becomes clear like a mirror that even after two decades of the formation of the state, tourism development here has remained limited to speeches only.
From the very first day of the formation of the state, people did have a high hope for employment, development, prosperity started from tourism and till date the governments are making the same noise. How long will this auspicious chanting of tourism development going on uninterruptedly for two decades, it is difficult to say. when this Mahayagya will be completed, but which wastes are being sacrificed by the governments and tourism department in this Mahayagya to get fire, it must become a matter of research.
It is true that crores of rupees have been spent every year in the name of tourism development, but we are tired of giving proof of where and how that money was spent. The dilapidated roads leading to tourist places not only this, due to their plight and constant neglect, many roads are now turning violent. It has become their nature to block vehicles for hours, to overturn in potholes. When the tourists who come here with many dreams of admiring the beauty of nature and panaramic view in their mind, when they have to deal with the wrath of the shabby, weeping streets and roads, then the tourists must think that mistake has been done in his part to visit these places .
In the name of tourism only Nainital, Ranikhet, Kausani etc. are limited to two or four places and these are deceptions with the whole journey. The government should develop other places in parallel like Dwarahat, Baijnath, Patal Bhubaneshwar, Champawat, Lamkeshwar, Chaukodi, Jagnath, Kot Bhramari, Pankhu ki Kotgadi temple, Shikhar Bhanar, Dharamghar, Kalital, Dhaulinag, etc. Tourists can come to these places to visit frequently.. This is only tourism and its development by which such places could get popularised and cold come in national as well as international tourism map.This in turn leads employment opportunities of the people at the local level and increase hat,bazar,maila, a kind of trade and teriff through out the year.
If some basic facilities were available in these places, beautiful plains, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, temples, green grass field (gochar), bugyyal and natural beauty like Uttarakhand, then surely the state would have been better financially. And at the same time, people do not have to leave their stagnant homes, land and property for bread and butter/employment. Migration would also have been reduced to a great extent and the standard of living of the people would have improved.