With a view to attract more tourists Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is all set to lay the foundation of a world class convention centre at Rajgir worth Rs 33 crore even as Opposition leaders have termed his holiday at the tourist place as a waste of money.
Bihar Cabinet ministers arrived at the Rajgir hillock on Tuesday to conduct their weekly Cabinet meeting.
Nitish himself came for the meeting in a helicopter. The state government gifted its employees a New Year gift and cleared the Sixth Pay Commission at the well-known tourist spot of Bihar.
"I took a break and came here. We held a Cabinet meeting too," says Nitish.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi says, "This is a gift for the people of Bihar."
Nitish also seems to be in a party mood as he along with his team of officials will be at Rajgir for one week.
The purpose, he says, is to hit two birds with one stone - take a break as well as promote Rajgir on the national tourism map.
"This is a tourist place and we need to promote it," says Nitish
From tonga (horse pulled cart) rides to enjoying the beauty of nature and local delicacies, he is revelling in all this place has to offer with the media following his every move.
Nitish's political opponents have found enough reasons to train their guns at him for what they call holidaying at public expense.
But Nitish seems unfazed. Maybe taking a cue from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who has gone all out to promote Gujarat as a tourist destination, Nitish plans to promote not just Rajgir, but other tourist spots of Bihar.link
Showing posts with label Rajgir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rajgir. Show all posts
Wednesday 30 December 2009
Tuesday 1 September 2009
Tourist flow goes up in Bihar
The initiatives taken by Bihar government to boost the sagging tourism sector has begun to pay dividends as the number of foreign tourists in the state has gone up by nearly six times in three years.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Bihar has gone up from 63,321 in 2005-06 to 3,56,446 in 2008-09, which was nearly six times, state's tourism minister Ram Pravesh Rai said.
Rai said steady and healthy growth in the number of foreign and domestic tourists was the result of state's NDA government's concerted efforts to create a conducive environment and its commitment to provide better security to them.
"People (tourists) are now feeling safe and secured in the NDA regime and that's why they are visiting Bihar in big numbers", Rai said.
The number of foreigners visited the state in 2005-06 was 63,321 which rose to 94,446 in 2006-07. Similarly, it went up to 1,77,362 in 2007-08 and was almost doubled in the very next year to touch 3,56,446 foreigners in 2008-09. More than 1.14 lakh foreigners have visited till the end of April in the current fiscal.
Similarly, there has been steady rise in the domestic tourists also, except in 2007-08 when it showed a little decline. The number of domestic tourists, which was 86.87 lakh in 2005-06, was hovering over one crore in subsequent years and touched its all time high to 1.21 crore in 2008-09.
Realising the huge potential of tourism in Bihar, which was home to a number of Buddhist, Jain and Sikh shrines, the NDA government increased budgetary allocation to tourism department after coming to power in November, 2005.
The government made a substantial allocation from a meagre Rs 7.43 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 29.78 crore in the current financial year (2009-10) which was almost a four-time raise, the minister said.
Rai said the department has formulated a tourism policy to provide impetus to the sector which has also been accorded the status of industry by the state government.
With a view to making travel more convenient for all tourists including foreigners, steps were underway for broadening and strengthening roads linking to Buddhist, Jain, Sikh religious circuits, official sources said.
Talks were also on with several aviation companies for increasing the frequency of international flights connecting Bodh Gaya airport.
To woo the foreigners, the government has decided to build a three and five star rated hotels at tourist spots such as Patna, Rajgir and Bodh Gaya on public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Tourism Police Force would be deployed at Gaya, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Vaishali in the first phase and subsequently the force would be stationed at all the tourist sites.
The government was committed to develop tourist sites at Vaishali, Jehanabad, Maner, Kesariya, Lauria, Nandangarh, to attract more tourists, the minister said.
The government has plans to launch courses in travel and tourism, hospitality, hotel management, catering guide, tour and travel operator with assistance from Human Resources Development department to promote greater expertise for improved management of the tourism sector. link
The number of foreign tourists visiting Bihar has gone up from 63,321 in 2005-06 to 3,56,446 in 2008-09, which was nearly six times, state's tourism minister Ram Pravesh Rai said.
Rai said steady and healthy growth in the number of foreign and domestic tourists was the result of state's NDA government's concerted efforts to create a conducive environment and its commitment to provide better security to them.
"People (tourists) are now feeling safe and secured in the NDA regime and that's why they are visiting Bihar in big numbers", Rai said.
The number of foreigners visited the state in 2005-06 was 63,321 which rose to 94,446 in 2006-07. Similarly, it went up to 1,77,362 in 2007-08 and was almost doubled in the very next year to touch 3,56,446 foreigners in 2008-09. More than 1.14 lakh foreigners have visited till the end of April in the current fiscal.
Similarly, there has been steady rise in the domestic tourists also, except in 2007-08 when it showed a little decline. The number of domestic tourists, which was 86.87 lakh in 2005-06, was hovering over one crore in subsequent years and touched its all time high to 1.21 crore in 2008-09.
Realising the huge potential of tourism in Bihar, which was home to a number of Buddhist, Jain and Sikh shrines, the NDA government increased budgetary allocation to tourism department after coming to power in November, 2005.
The government made a substantial allocation from a meagre Rs 7.43 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 29.78 crore in the current financial year (2009-10) which was almost a four-time raise, the minister said.
Rai said the department has formulated a tourism policy to provide impetus to the sector which has also been accorded the status of industry by the state government.
With a view to making travel more convenient for all tourists including foreigners, steps were underway for broadening and strengthening roads linking to Buddhist, Jain, Sikh religious circuits, official sources said.
Talks were also on with several aviation companies for increasing the frequency of international flights connecting Bodh Gaya airport.
To woo the foreigners, the government has decided to build a three and five star rated hotels at tourist spots such as Patna, Rajgir and Bodh Gaya on public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Tourism Police Force would be deployed at Gaya, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Vaishali in the first phase and subsequently the force would be stationed at all the tourist sites.
The government was committed to develop tourist sites at Vaishali, Jehanabad, Maner, Kesariya, Lauria, Nandangarh, to attract more tourists, the minister said.
The government has plans to launch courses in travel and tourism, hospitality, hotel management, catering guide, tour and travel operator with assistance from Human Resources Development department to promote greater expertise for improved management of the tourism sector. link
Sunday 16 August 2009
Growth and development cannot overlook hungry stomachs: Amartya Sen
Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen while speaking at a Right to Food campaign recently said, "India's stride towards development, prosperity and economic growth cannot happen with a major chunk of the children (around 40%) being malnourished or born underweight."
Appreciating the government for bringing about the Food Security Act, he said that improper distribution of food and malnourishment were injustice done onto the citizens of the country.
Amartya narrated his experience of his stay in regions like Nalanda, Gaya, Rajgir and Patna in Bihar. He could see the change in the administration even in the backward areas. According to him, India had a reason to be optimistic about, as a wider cross-section of people had access to food and that illustrated the change an able leadership can bring about.
The Right to Food Act was a pre election promise of the Congress government. It later proposed National Food Security Bill and mentioned the same in the Budget speech under which poor families would get 25 kg of rice/wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg.
The magnitude of malnourishment, especially in woman, mothers, children and babies at birth, in India was tremendous.
As reported by the Sunday Tribune, Amartya Sen said that India had beaten African nations in child malnourishment. Malnourishment incapacitates the mind and debilitates the body. It is a situation of manifest injustice and we have the means to remove it but there is a certain level of smugness about India's achievements. He said, one must recognise that poverty, lack of food, illnesses and state of education in India were closely linked and were of the same magnitude."
The Indian distribution system though has achieved a level, still needed to be strengthened and effective ways of distribution needed to be designed.
There was a general perception that if the supply of food has been ensured, then the poor do not need the employment guarantee scheme. But the way of getting to all is through diverse necessities.
Commenting on the mid-day meal scheme, Sen said that India had finally achieved what Europe achieved 200 years earlier. Europe had introduced the scheme in the 19th century.
Kids belonging to the wealthier families complain that they find it uncomfortable having food with the kids belonging to the poor families and prefer eating their Tiffin. Media is obsessed with the richer kids and consequently the quality of food gets more weight-age than the fact that many are able to fill their hungry stomachs.
Sen asserted that we have to stand by the mid-day meal scheme so that poorest schools do not lose the grants and benefits they have." Sen, who teaches at Harvard University in US, concluded, "It was easier to teach children in a full stomach than hungry children who could not concentrate and had short attention spans." The discussion was hosted by an umbrella of non-profit groups campaigning for the right to food.link
Appreciating the government for bringing about the Food Security Act, he said that improper distribution of food and malnourishment were injustice done onto the citizens of the country.
Amartya narrated his experience of his stay in regions like Nalanda, Gaya, Rajgir and Patna in Bihar. He could see the change in the administration even in the backward areas. According to him, India had a reason to be optimistic about, as a wider cross-section of people had access to food and that illustrated the change an able leadership can bring about.
The Right to Food Act was a pre election promise of the Congress government. It later proposed National Food Security Bill and mentioned the same in the Budget speech under which poor families would get 25 kg of rice/wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg.
The magnitude of malnourishment, especially in woman, mothers, children and babies at birth, in India was tremendous.
As reported by the Sunday Tribune, Amartya Sen said that India had beaten African nations in child malnourishment. Malnourishment incapacitates the mind and debilitates the body. It is a situation of manifest injustice and we have the means to remove it but there is a certain level of smugness about India's achievements. He said, one must recognise that poverty, lack of food, illnesses and state of education in India were closely linked and were of the same magnitude."
The Indian distribution system though has achieved a level, still needed to be strengthened and effective ways of distribution needed to be designed.
There was a general perception that if the supply of food has been ensured, then the poor do not need the employment guarantee scheme. But the way of getting to all is through diverse necessities.
Commenting on the mid-day meal scheme, Sen said that India had finally achieved what Europe achieved 200 years earlier. Europe had introduced the scheme in the 19th century.
Kids belonging to the wealthier families complain that they find it uncomfortable having food with the kids belonging to the poor families and prefer eating their Tiffin. Media is obsessed with the richer kids and consequently the quality of food gets more weight-age than the fact that many are able to fill their hungry stomachs.
Sen asserted that we have to stand by the mid-day meal scheme so that poorest schools do not lose the grants and benefits they have." Sen, who teaches at Harvard University in US, concluded, "It was easier to teach children in a full stomach than hungry children who could not concentrate and had short attention spans." The discussion was hosted by an umbrella of non-profit groups campaigning for the right to food.link
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Police Academy to come up at Rajgir
The Bihar government on Tuesday decided to transfer 136 acres of land acquired in Rajgir to police department for construction of Bihar Police Academy for imparting training to police official appointed in junior grade, sources said.
In another decision, the state cabinet which met here under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last evening, raised the diesel subsidy to Rs 450 per hectare from Rs 350 per hectare as announced earlier in the wake of drought-like situation.
The cabinet also earmarked Rs 50 crore for seeds subsidy in view of the drought situation.
The government also decided to impose four per cent vat on Makhana and one per cent on Rajma.link
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