The Minister for Tourism and Culture, Prahlad Singh Patel and senior officials from both the Ministries called on the 15th Finance Commission headed by Chairman, N.K. Singh to put forth the financial projections of the Ministries on various schemes and projects and also suggest measures for incentivizing States by the Finance Commission in its rewards, for the promotion of tourism and culture.
The Chairman, N. K. Singh observed that the Tourism and Culture sectors are very important for the Finance Commission as they were engines of employment generation, income growth and are an integral part of integration of the nation and for building international relations. He said that the Commission was aware of the typical problems of the sectors most of which were legacy issues. The Chairman was of the view that major changes were required in the ASI Act 1958, which was dated and not suited for current times.
He suggested that private sector participation should be encouraged for the up-keep of protected monuments and should be enacted to aggressively market the monuments amongst international and domestic tourists. The meeting discussed the Prime Minister's stress on domestic tourism and Chairman was of the view that sending school students to the different parts of the country should be made mandatory on the part of the school - by making it a part of the school syllabus. The meeting also discussed the problems facing the hotel industry and the lack of connectivity infrastructure which was hampering the growth of tourism across the country.
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