‘Tourism industry in Agra left empty-handed’
AGRA : The common man looking forward to rapid transport got some positive news as finance minister Suresh Khanna announced an allocation of Rs 597 crore for Agra metro rail project, but the tourism and footwear sectors, expecting some incentives for revival post the pandemic, were not happy.
Compared to Ayodhya and Varanasi, there was not much for Mathura too in the budget, apart from benefits of a state wide scheme. A provision of Rs 8 crore was proposed for the construction of a dairy plant of 3000 litres per day capacity in Mathura.
For Aligarh, there was a provision of Rs. 50 crore for development of industrial establishments.
“The present state budget focuses on the development of rural activities, farmers and also on safety and security of women but nothing major has been given for generating employment in cities. However, the plan to establish more and more start-ups might help in generating employment,” said Gagan Dass Ramani, president of Agra Shoe Factors Federation, a representative body for medium and small scale footwear units in Agra.
“Nothing concrete has been said about the ambitious ODOP scheme of chief minister Yogi Adityanath declared in the past. Footwear has been selected for Agra under ODOP but no funds have been allocated for the development of this scheme. Yet the budget can be termed as a developmental one for Uttar Pradesh” said Ramani.
Rohit Dua, a social activist and chartered accountant, said that the important tourism industry of Agra, eagerly awaiting a relief package from the state government, was left empty-handed.
“Agra along with four other cities, shall be made a safe city for which dditional allocations have been made in the budget. The ongoing Metro rail project will get a boost with additional allocations,” said Dua.
“Tourism has once again been ignored as Agra continues to be out of favour in present BJP regime. One wonders that an industry which contributes 10% to GDP and provides massive opportunity for job creation can be neglected for so long,” complained Rajeev Saxena of the Tourism Guild of Agra.