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| Welcome to Lohri festival...... courtesy Tourism Deptt....! | | Why confine it to congested RN Bazar alone...? | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 11: Once again the newspapers have been adorned with the colourful advertisements 'gifted' by the J&K's Tourism department , this time to celebrate the festival of Lohri in the City of Temples. It is a festive call for all to participate in the festivities of Lohri being organized by the Department, as always in association with the Raghunath Bazar Businessmen fraternity. The festive spirit so generated and enthusiasm of the RN Bazar business towards Lohri is well understood. But one wonders and is prompted to ask why Toursim Department chooses to shrink and confine the celebrations around this area, which is already too congested and heavily burdened with the pilgrim rush on even routine days.
J&K's Tourism Department otherwise boasts of having a vision and well planned programmes to woo the tourists and promote places of tourism across the State. However, it goes without saying its entire focus remains on Kashmir and Jammu is convinced only with such small celebrations around festivals, a couple of times during the Navratras and a few more, notwithstanding the fact that Jammu witnesses heavy rush of pilgrims throughout the year. When some Jammu based politicians clamour occasionally about discrimination on this front, the Government talks high about its plans to divert the pilgrims to other spots in Jammu region, a hollow claim which till date has remained on papers only. For no tourist spot beyond a few already known, has been developed nor any attempt is being made to divert the pilgrims to such places.
However, the moot point under argument is that why Tourism Department organizes such events just for the sake of it , without putting even basic things in order, not to speak of streamlining the other requirements to make such programmes a grand success and truly spirit oriented celebrations. Raghunath Bazar , no doubt is the hub of pilgrim tourists and frequented heavily by them almost entire day , till late in the evening, it being in the heart of the city and most of hotels and lodges in its vicinity. No doubt the business community puts in its efforts to make the festival and festivities related to it attractive , but things , as seen in the past turn into a messy affair for more than one reason, the main being ill planning on part of the Tourism Department .
The place being congested it often gets an over crowded affair , where even commoners do not access (because of restricted traffic movement, entry barred on adjacent roads for some hours due to presence of some VIPs), not to speak of pilgrims joining the celebrations. So the whole idea of celebrating it for the cause of promoting tourism amid congested , crowded places gets defeated. People are also put to inconvenience on the day of festival when they should be moving around freely on account of such restrictions , no matter for a brief time.
One more striking yet ironical aspect of the colourful ad reflecting festive spirit of Lohri is the mention by the Tourism Department at the bottom of the illustrative details from cuisine, eatables to Chajja Dance and other rituals associated with Lohri, is its 'reminder' to people, perhaps pilgrim tourists that Jammu does have other places of tourist attraction…..and the list includes: Ranbireshwar Temple, Bahu Temple, Bahu Fort, Bahu Aquarium etc, besides of course Mubarak Mandi Heritage Complex and Amar Mahal Museum. While one must thank Toursim authorities of reminding people of such places, one certainly wonders about its claim on Heritage Complex, which is still under construction and Amar Mahal Museum which is not in its purview. The moot point is how long Tourism department will confine its vision of tourism promotion to such places and how long Jammu people shall have to remain content with these formal gestures of festive celebrations alone…? |
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