Cleanliness is the minimum thing expected in a tourist place if not a face lift.   The places any how are old and their appearances are accepted along with the damaged spots if any.  A monument’s age is the attraction alright, but maintenance of cleanliness is in our hands!  It dawned on the Government of India to take up a special program of cleaning up the Tourist places to attract tourists.  

Partner in the program is Oil and Natural Gas Corporation starting with Taj Mahal at Agra which will be inaugurated today by the Union Tourism Minister K.Chiranjeevi.

Clean India was taken up last year at Qutab Minar at Delhi maintenance of which is taken up since then by the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC).

ONGC has agreed to take up the cleaning up of other tourist places in India.  The prominent places to be cleaned are Golkonda at Hyderabad, Ellora and Elephanta caves in Maharashtra, Mahabalipuram in Tamila Nadu and Red Fort at Dlehi.

The program also includes responsibility on the part of the sponsoring Corporation to ensure good arrangements for stay and other comforts at those places for the visiting tourists, along with a help desk.

The target is to attract 60 lakhs of tourists and to increase revenue by 12% in the 12th Five Year Plan.  The Government is making agreements with various organizations to entrust the duty of cleaning and a regular maintenance to make the tourist places attractive.

(AW-SriJa)