UNIQUE INITIATIVE
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s administration has come up with many out of the box initiatives to make the Union Territory more lucrative as tourism is J&K’s one of the mainstays as far as the local economy is concerned. In this context, an extraordinary endeavour is underway through which the tourism sector will be given a boost by developing certain specific villages as tourist hubs exploring the unexplored as 181 villages have already been identified to start with this new initiative across the Union Territory. The villages handpicked have picturesque beauty and extraordinary cultural significance and it is likely that this step will go a long way in strengthening the rural economy and empowering the youths and women by vistas of employment opportunities. With 181 tourist villages, the visitors of the region will have so much to explore that their days of touring will increase considerably giving the much needed impetus to the local economy. LG Sinha has so much to his credit as many schemes and plans which he has brought in J&K were not in the minds of people sitting at helm before his tenure. Surely, under Mission Youth’s initiative, the registered youth and Self Help Groups will be provided an opportunity to be a part of the government’s endeavour to transform the villages of J&K into tourist hubs. It is pertinent to mention that the Tourist Villages Development Programme was launched by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on September 3, 2021 for transforming a large number of villages of the Union Territory known for historical, picturesque beauty and cultural significance into tourist villages. The government is all set to provide the required help to the self help groups and the motivated youth to become the partners in the change envisaged for the aforesaid villages because with the success of this programme all the regions are likely to get equal share of tourists as many villages are of great significance as far as tourism is concerned but were neglected badly by the successive regimes having myopic view on tourism as they never go beyond the set tourist destinations of the region including a few in Jammu region and plenty of these in Kashmir Valley.