NEW DELHI, Jan 2 – At a time when the Assam Government has identified tourism as a key sector for economic development of the State – describing it as the engine for growth – chronic problems continue to paralyse the functioning of Assam Tourism Information Centre (ATIC) here. If you are a tourist planning to visit Assam, then it would be far more convenient for you, as foreign tourist often discovers to make your own arrangements, rather then depending on the State Government’s Tourist Information Centre. You will have problems contacting it, its telephone has been lying out of order since the last three years. In the absence of any means of communication system, tourists are told to make their arrangements even as officials here expressed their inability to extend any reservation facilities.
This is in sharp contrast to the help offered by some of the States like Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and even Haryana which fall over each other trying to woo tourists. “We have the potential of becoming the jewel in the crown of the North-east as a unique destination in the tourism map of the world” a confident looking Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, had asserted in a conference of Chief Ministers and Tourism Ministers held on October 20, last year. He hardly realised that tourism infrastructure facilities were in shambles both inside and outside the State. A casual enquiry into the running of the Tourist Information Centre here reveals that it is not only the telephone that is not functioning. The Centre is plagued by over staffing, lack of infrastructure facilities and bureaucratic wranglings to name but a few of the lacunae.
Take the case of the Centre’s only telephone, it was out of order for the better part of 1996 to 1997, after which it was briefly restored only to be disconnected again in 1998-99. And believe it or not, the telephone has been lying out of order since 1999 because of the inability of the Assam Government to clear a bill of around Rs 2000 only”. In what perhaps perfectly reflects the manner of functioning of the State Government, for the best part of the previous AGP regime there was no official to man the Centre for five years. It was only in the later part of 2000 that an assistant Tourist Officer was appointed. But in a sharp turn around of policies, the State Government in its own wisdom appointed two more officers including an official of the rank of deputy director to run a Centre that has a sanctioned strength of only one officer. The result is that the two officers including an assistant Tourist Information Officer and a Tourist Information Officer have no place to sit. The Centre is located in Baba Kharag Singh Marh and shares its office with the Assam Government’s Directorate of Information and Public Relations.
Another shocking aspect of the prevailing state of affairs is that the Centre’s lone Peon has been taken away by a senior Guwahati-posted bureaucrat to serve his family which is stationed here. Informed sources claimed that even the two officials of the Department were posted here, at the behest of influential quarters. One officer’s post was withdrawn from Assam and the other from Kolkata and were shifted to Delhi. As of now, out of the total staff strength of five, three are officers while two others include an office assistant and a Peon. Meanwhile, the tourists continue to suffer for the want of authentic information. Significantly, Chief Minister Gogoi addressing the conference in October had sought earmarking of 10 per cent of the Budgeted publicity funds both for the domestic and overseas promotion, exclusively to promote tourism in North East. In fact, his plea for declaring 2003 as “Destination North East Year” was seriously taken note of by the Centre.