Selja declares Sikkim as an ‘Eco-Friendly Tourism State’
Union Minister calls on States to follow ‘Green Mission’ & MG Marg model

BIJOY GURUNG

Gangtok, December 6: The fifteen years of relentless environmental protection measures of Sikkim today received a resounding endorsement from the Centre with Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja declaring Sikkim as ‘Eco-friendly Tourism State’.
The Green Mission campaign of Sikkim Government to preserve the environment and forest cover is highly commendable and we are very happy to declare Sikkim as an Eco-friendly Tourism State, said the Union Minister while inaugurating a day long inter State regional conference of Tourism Ministers of East and Northeastern States being hosted at Chintan Bhavan here today.

Tourism ministers and representatives from eight States from East and Northeastern States are participating in the meet.

Selja pointed out that while drawing the tourism policies, the fragile ecology of Northeast States must not be forgotten which offer extraordinary prospects for Green Tourism. “In this direction, the Green Mission initiative of the State Government of Sikkim aiming to sustain, maintain and enrich the State’s environment and ecology is highly commendable. I urge every State and Union Territory in India to emulate this initiative”, she said.

It may be added here the earlier this year Union Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh has already announced a Green Bonus for Sikkim.

The Minister who arrived yesterday for the meet lavished praises on the Sikkim government for the exemplary tourism related projects taken up including the beautification of the Mahatma Gandhi Marg located in the heart of the capital. “The MG Marg project can be emulated by other States and my Ministry will be sharing it with other States as an example,” she said. She also complimented the State government for the cleanliness maintained in Gangtok and said that other States should learn from Sikkim.

Commenting on the meet, Selja said that the objective of the conference is to give a serious thought on tourism related issues and problems that specifically pertain to the States in the region. She pointed out that despite the immense tourism potential of the Northeast region, the sector is yet to see its full potential.
“There are indeed some hurdles that are blocking the exploitation to its full capacity. This conference aims at perusing, analyzing and examining at length these blockages”, said Selja. She added that the Ministry has taken strongly taken up the issue of relaxations of inner line, restricted area and protected area permits and after constant persuasion the Ministry of Home Affairs have accorded relaxation for the States of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

Highlighting the wide ranging schemes launched by the Ministry of Tourism, the Minister said that the Ministry has initiated the scheme of certification of skills of service providers working in the hospitality sector. “A minimum of 5000 service providers would be certified in the year. We are starting this in IHM Guwahati in this region”, she said adding that domestic road shows in collaboration with private sector participation of all the regions are being organized by the Ministry.
“154 rural sites, which include 51 sites in East and Northeast regions are being developed under Rural Tourism scheme. The traditional artisans from these sites have been given exposure to national/international platforms”, said the Minister. She also informed that as per the modifications in the guidelines of existing financial assistance scheme to promote tourism destinations in hilly, remote and inaccessible areas of the country, three projects for construction of heliports at Mangan, Geetang khola and Chemchey in Sikkim have been sanctioned.

The Union Minister also underlined the need for monitoring of projects which are sanctioned by the Ministry of Tourism. For the speedy implementation of these projects, it is suggested that a State level monitoring committee should be constituted which would not only regularly monitor but also send a quarterly report to the Ministry of Tourism, she said.

Highlighting the crucial issue of providing a safe and secure environment to tourists, Selja said that the matter regarding Tourist Police Organizations in States and Union Territories has been taken up from time to time. Accordingly, guidelines for raising Tourist Security Organization, comprising of ex-servicemen for the safety and security of tourists were formulated and these guidelines were forwarded to all the State governments, she said urging the Sikkim government to constitute the force like other States.

Regarding the steps taken by the Union government to promote Northeast, the Union Minister said that the Ministry of Tourism is working on a commercial film to promote Northeast and the film would be launched soon.

Earlier, the Ministry of Tourism secretary Sujit Banerjee in his opening remarks expressed his unbelievable and astounding tourism appeal of Sikkim. The four things which I saw gives an idea of Sikkim’s tourism potential are the under construction Chaar Dhaam project, the gigantic statue of Guru Padmasambhava, holy Keochopalri Lake and divine Pemayangtse monastery, he said.

The Union secretary also complimented Sikkim government for maintaining uniformity in the infrastructures with local designs and materials which blend with local environment.

Earlier, State tourism minister Bhim Dhungel presented the welcome address.