The business community related to tourism carry out a March in a protest demanding the removal of restrictions on Chardham yatra.

Ajay Ramola
GG News Bureau
Dehradun, 19th June. More than 300 members related to the tourism trade associations have begun a long march from Haridwar to Dehradun, under the banner of Sanyukt Morcha Paryatan Udyog, opposing the restrictions imposed by the Uttarakhand government on Chardham yatra. Different Akharas lead by their senior seers joined and inaugurated the march at Hardwar on Friday.
Abhishek Ahluwalia former president of tour operator association Haridwar said, “Tourism industry be it hoteliers, taxi operators, transporters, Dhaba walas etc have been at the receiving end since the start of the first covid wave and the lockdown imposed in the state and if the restrictions are not removed then it would result in an enormous economic crisis which does not augur well for the tourism-dependent state like Uttarakhand,”
The neighbouring Himachal Pradesh has removed all the restrictions and one can see the tourist inflow has increased therefore it is imperative that the government also start thinking on similar terms here, added Ahluwalia.
Ashutosh Sharma president of Hotel Association Haridwar said that the march will conclude at Dehradun on Saturday where a delegation handover a memorandum seeking removal of restrictions and permission for commencement of the annual yatra from the chief minister.
He questioned the policy of the state to continue with mandatory RT-PCR negative certificates to enter Uttarakhand as compared to other states who have already removed such restriction. “ Even Taj Mahal is opened for tourists now but it seems that the government has turned a blind eye to our problems” said Ashutosh Sharma.
Sanjay Sharma, Vijay Shukla, Arvind Khaneja, Girish Bhatia, Harish Bhatia, Arjun Saini, Pushpapreet, Iqbal Singh, Anuj Singhal, Chandrakant Sharma, Deepak Bhalla, Ajit, Mintu Panjwani, Dr Sandeep Kapoor, Salim, Gur Chaman, Samim, Chandrakant Kothari, Chandra Kishore, Sachin Bhatia, Kuldeep Grover, Sharad Arora, Amit Bhalla, Gaurav, Anup Manocha, Sanjay Nathani, Adesh Saini, Daljit Singh Sharad Arora, Amit Bhalla, Guddu Bhai, etc. joined the long march from Hardwar.
Sundar Singh Panwar the president of the Uttarakhand Taxi maxi association said that we support the march as the taxi operators are major sufferers due to such restrictions.
The association related to the tourism industry demanded financial relief in form of waiving or extending the applicable license and No objection certificates (NOC) and providing soft loans, providing loan moratorium, and waiving the electricity and water bills so that all the members of the tourism community can get some relief amid the covid crisis here.
In order to ensure that Uttarakhand is a safe tourist state, all tourism stakeholders should be vaccinated at the earliest with the recognition of front-line workers. So that every tourist coming can feel safe. This will also lead to an increase in the revenue of the State demanded the protesters.