Bhubaneswar: The Union Ministry of Tourism had planned to develop at least 15 tourism circuits across the country under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme in 2014-15 fiscal. Two prominent tourist destinations from the state were included under the Ramayana and Krishna Circuits. But the Centre is yet to sanction money for the development of these two sites.
Sources said the Centre had sanctioned altogether `390 crores for Ramayana and Krishna Circuits in 2016-17 and 2017-18 financial years. However, Mahendragiri, that has been included in the Ramayana Circuit, and Puri, which has been made a part of Krishna Circuit, are yet to receive a single rupee under the scheme from the Centre, sources said.
Notably, four tourism sites of Uttar Pradesh—Ayodhya, Shringhverpur, Nandigram and Chitrakoot—have been included in the Ramayana Circuit. Similarly, three places of Bihar such as Sitamarhi, Buxar and Darbhanga and two places of Maharashtra such as Nashik and Nagpur have been also made parts of the Central scheme.
Besides, Chitrakoot of Madhya Pradesh, Jagdalpur of Chhattisgarh, Bhadrachalam of Telangana, Hampi of Karnataka and Rameshwaram of Tamil Nadu have been declared as part and parcel of Ramayana Circuit.
Six tourist destinations of UP (Mathura, Vrindavan, Barsana, Gokul, Nandgaon and Govardhan) and three sites of Rajasthan (Nathdwar, Jaipur and Sikar) have been included in the Krishna Circuit. Besides, Dwarka of Gujarat and Kurukshetra of Haryana have been included in the circuit.
It is learnt that the Centre had sanctioned `69.45 crores for the development of Chitrakoot and Shringhverpur in UP in 2016-17 fiscal. Besides, it had granted `97.35 crores for the development of Kurukshetra and `91.45 crores for the infrastructure upgradation of Jaipur under the scheme in 2016-17. Similarly, the Central government had allocated `133.31 crores for the development of Ayodhya in 2017-18 fiscal.
“The Centre has shown step-motherly attitude to Orissa with regard to the Ramayana and Krishna Circuits. It should allocate funds for Mahendragiri and Puri at the earliest,” said a social activist.
PNN