Funds for tourism infra not released

The government has not sanctioned or released any fund for the development of tourism related infrastructure under Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD scheme in 2019-20. Since 2016-17, the funds have been shrinking and have come to a nought by 2019-20.

Swadesh Darshan and National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) are two schemes under which the ministry of tourism provides financial assistance to the states and Union Territories for the development of tourism related infrastructure in the country.

According to the ministry data, the funding towards these schemes has been shrinking year after year since 2016-17. In 2016-17, the ministry had sanctioned `3,001.93 crore under the Swadesh Darshan scheme for various projects. Of this, the government released `2,031 crore.

In 2017-18, the sanctioned amount significantly shrunk to `809.41 crore and of this `438.53 crore was released. In 2018-19, a total of `645.33 crore was sanctioned, but a meagre `5.38 crore was released for one project intended to develop wayside amenities.

For the financial year 2019-20, the ministry has neither sanctioned nor released funds for any project until January 27, 2020. As per the Budget, the government had outlaid `1,106 crore for Swadesh Darshan scheme in 2019-20 and has allocated `1,200 crore for 2020-21.

Similarly, for the PRASHAD scheme, the ministry has not sanctioned any project or released funds for the financial year 2019-20. In 2016-17, it had released `252.89 crore against an aggregate cost of `378.67 crore for the sanctioned projects. In 2017-18, out of the total project cost of `181.25 crore, the government had released `98.38 crore. In FY19, the ministry released `65.41 crore against aggregate project cost of `188.3 crore.