Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: The Sun temple at Konark along with other prominent monuments maintained by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) from across the country has been selected as one of the tourist destinations covered under the ‘Swachh Paryatan’ mobile application launched by the Union tourism ministry.
The mobile application is likely to help travellers upload pictures of dirty sites at tourist venues and alert the authorities for “immediate action” as part of the Clean India Mission.
The app, launched by the Union Ministry of Tourism, has been made available for 25 heritage monuments, including Konark temple, Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and Humayun’s tomb, Qutab Minar, Red Fort among others.
In the days to come, the services are likely to be extended to other tourist attractions. “People can transmit pictures of dirty places on which immediate action will be taken. Besides, people can also send suggestions to bring improvement at the tourist places,” Union minister of state for Tourism Mahesh Sharma said in a release.
The minister described the people as the “largest stakeholders” and said the government’s cleanliness programme will not succeed without their help. “That’s why the ministry has decided to facilitate the general public to communicate their complaints to government about lack of cleanliness in and around the tourist destinations.”
According to norms, after receiving a complaint from tourists through the Application, an SMS will be sent to the nearby ASI nodal officer and he/she would get the garbage cleared/removed. The officials would later send confirmation about the solution about the complaint through a counter-SMS to the complainant.
The app in initial stages is available on android phones, but it is likely to be made accessible on Apple and Microsoft phones also. This mobile app will be monitored by the project monitoring unit of Swachh Bharat Mission in Union ministry of tourism.
