Empowering MSMEs with News & Insights

Poor response to Uttarakhand Yatra; small biz still out of job

Updated: May 01, 2014 04:47:37pm
image
Dehradun, May 1 (KNN) Ahead of the Char Dham Yatra to begin in the next few days, Uttarakhand Government’s tardy rehabilitation work has left the units in the services sector like the small tour and travel operators, who completely depend on the Yatra Season for their livelihood, out of bookings.

“Nothing much has been done on the ground. Government has failed to provide any alternative to the small industrial units in the state which were washed away in the floods last year,” President of Industries Association of Uttarakhand (IAU), Pankaj Gupta told KNN.

Char Dham consists of a spiritual expedition that includes visits to four shrines namely Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinat, located in the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand.   

Although the government’s main focus was on building the roads, “the road work is not yet done properly. I personally won’t suggest anyone who asks me, to undertake the yatra,” he said.

Further, due to bad weather and poor road conditions the Uttarakhand government has advised children and old people against visiting Kedarnath, according to media reports.
Last year, the yatra was put on hold due to the massive flood that damaged the roads to the shrines.

Every year, 23 to 24 lakh pilgrims arrive in the state for the Char Dham Yatra – Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. The disaster has hit tourism badly.

“This year the small tour and travel operators and small hotels are also out of booking orders.  Previously, they used to get full bookings in advance,” Gupta said.

Around 2,000 people in the services sector will be completely out of jobs, he added.

As per official statistics, there were about 19,590 registered micro and small enterprises besides many unregulated and unorganized enterprises in the affected area last year.  All these enterprises were badly hit and have suffered huge property, business and financial losses.

“The units which lost their businesses and not the lands have somehow managed to reinstate their business, but the units which even lost their lands have still not restarted their work,” IAU President said.

According to a study conducted last year, tourism sector witnessed a direct employment loss of about 1,80,000 people due to floods last year.

“Given the extent of their association in the tourism and hospitality sector, it would be reasonable to expect at least one person from a household to be directly employed in tourism. The sector would lose as much as Rs 4170 crore per year,” the study had said. (KNN/SD)
 

COMMENTS

    Be first to give your comments.

LEAVE A REPLY

Required fields are marked *