PROPOSAL FOR ADDITIONAL LTC TO NEPAL, BHUTAN, MALE AND SRILANKA
Following
PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Nepal for the Saarc summit, the government
is mulling a proposal to provide leave travel concession (LTC) for
government employees to four countries — Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri
Lanka — to boost tourism in the neighbourhood. The LTC will be modeled
on the schemes for the north-east and J&K which helped increase
tourism and fueled economic improvement in the two regions.
Incidentally,
there has been a sharp dip in tourist arrivals from all four countries
in the last few years. While Sri Lanka remains one of India’s top source
countries, tourism arrivals declined by 11% in 2013 while arrivals from
Maldives dropped by 10% between 2012 and 2013.
Similarly,
the number of tourists from Nepal came down by 9% while Bhutan, which
has a small share of tourists (15,016), saw a drop of 1% in the same
period.
Sources in the tourism ministry said,
“Introducing LTC for 20 lakh government employees could encourage
greater people to people exchange among the Saarc countries. But there
will have to be some reciprocal arrangement. We are working on that.”
Sources said India was in touch with the countries to consider the
proposal’s viability.
At the Saarc summit, Modi
had highlighted the need for better connectivity in the region. In his
speech, he had said, “It is still harder to travel within our region
than to Bangkok or Singapore; and, more expensive to speak to each
other.”
There are a large number of Buddhists in
the region and India hopes to capitalize on that. Besides Lumbini in
Nepal, other significant spots for Buddhists are in India including Bodh
Gaya, Sarnath and Kapilvastu. Modi also flagged off a Kathmandu-Delhi
bus but plans for greater rail and road connectivity were stonewalled
after Pakistan blocked two agreements in Nepal.
Source: Times of India
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