162-Final Report
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PARLIAMENT OF INDIA RAJYA SABHA 162 DEPARTMENT - RELATED PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, TOURISM AND CULTURE ONE HUNDRED SIXTY SECOND REPORT ON ACTION TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT ON THE RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE CONTAINED IN ITS ONE HUNDRED FIFTY FOURTH REPORT ON DEMANDS FOR GRANTS (2010-2011) OF THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM (PRESENTED TO THE RAJYA SABHA ON 04.03.2011) (LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA ON 04.03.2011) RAJYA SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI MARCH, 2011/PHALGUNA, 1932 (SAKA) Website:http://rajyasabha.nic.in E-mail:[email protected] PARLIAMENT OF INDIA RAJYA SABHA DEPARTMENT - RELATED PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, TOURISM AND CULTURE ONE HUNDRED SIXTY SECOND REPORT ON ACTION TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT ON THE RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE CONTAINED IN ITS ONE HUNDRED FIFTY FOURTH REPORT ON DEMANDS FOR GRANTS (2010-2011) OF THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM (PRESENTED TO THE RAJYA SABHA ON 04.03.2011) (LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA ON 04.03.2011) RAJYA SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI MARCH, 2011/PHALGUNA, 1932 (SAKA) CONTENTS PAGES 1. COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEE ......................................................................................... (i)-(ii) 2. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. (iii) 3. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ................................................................................................ 1-19 4. OBSERVATIONS /C ONCLUSIONS /R ECOMMENDATIONS –– AT A GLANCE ............................................ 20-22 5. MINUTES ......................................................................................................................... 23-26 COMPOSITION OF THE DEPARTMENT-RELATED PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, TOURISM AND CULTURE (2010-2011) 1. Shri Sitaram Yechury ---------- Chairman RAJYA SABHA 2. Shri Ramdas Agarwal 3. Shri Shadi Lal Batra 4. Shri Narendra Kashyap 5. Shri Pyarimohan Mohapatra 6. Shri Syed Azeez Pasha 7. Shri Thomas Sangma 8. Shri Satish Sharma 9. Prof. Saif-ud-Din Soz 10. Shri Vikram Verma LOK SABHA 11. Yogi Aditya Nath 12. Shri Avtar Singh Bhadana 13. Shri V. Kishore Chandra S. Deo 14. Shrimati Bhavana Gawali Patil 15. Dr. Mahesh Joshi 16. Shri P. Karunakaran 17. Shri Jose K. Mani 18. Shrimati Ranee Narah 19. Shri Rajaram Pal 20. Shri Bal Kumar Patel 21. Shri Nama Nageswara Rao 22. Shri Sharief-ud-din Shariq 23. Shri Madan Lal Sharma 24. Shri Dushyant Singh 25. Shri Jitendra Singh 26. Shri Rakesh Singh 27. Shri Shatrughan Sinha 28. Shri K. Sugumar 29. Shri Kabir Suman 30. Shri Anurag Singh Thakur 31. Shri K.C. Venugopal* SECRETARIAT Shri N.K. Singh, Joint Secretary Shri Jagdish Kumar, Director Shri Swarabji B., Joint Director Shrimati Nidhi Chaturvedi, Assistant Director INTRODUCTION I, the Chairman, Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, having been authorised by the Committee to present on its behalf, do hereby present this One Hundred Sixty Second Report on “Action Taken by the Government on the Recommendations/Observations of the Committee contained in its One Hundred Fifty Fourth Report on Demands for Grants (2010-2011) of the Ministry of Tourism”. 2. The One Hundred Fifty Fourth Report of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture was presented to the Parliament on the 20th April, 2010. 3. The Action Taken Replies on the recommendations of the Committee contained on its One Hundred Fifty Fourth Report were received from the Ministry of Tourism on the 1 August, 2010. 4. The Committee considered and adopted the Report at its meeting held on the 20th December, 2010. SITARAM YECHURY NEW DELHI ; Chairman, December 20, 2010 Department-related Parliamentary Standing Agrahayana 29 , 1932 (Saka) Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture. REPORT 1. The Report of the Committee deals with the Action Taken by the Government on the observations/recommendations as contained in its One-Hundred and Fifty-fourth Report on Demands for Grants 2010-11 of the Ministry of Tourism which was presented to both the Houses of Parliament on 20th April, 2010. 2. Action Taken Replies have been received from the Government on the 1st August, 2010 in respect of all the observations/recommendations contained in the Report, which have been categorized as follows:- (i) Recommendations/observations, which have been accepted by the Ministry: Para Nos.10,16,29,30,37,54 and 66 Total- 7 (ii) Recommendations/observations which the Committee does not desire to pursue in view of the Ministry replies: Para Nos. 27,33,35,52,65,68,71,83,84,88,103 and 104 Total-12 (iii) Recommendations/observations in respect of which replies of the Ministry have not been accepted by the Committee: Para Nos. 17, 20 and 98 Total-3 (iv) Recommendations/observations in respect of which final replies of the Ministry are still awaited: Para Nos. 22,25,43,53,63,72,91,95 and 106 Total-9 3. The Committee desires that final replies in respect of those recommendations/observations which have been categorized as interim replies by the Committee should be furnished to it at the earliest. 4. On scrutiny of the Action Taken Replies, the Committee has made observations on each item of Action taken/proposed to be taken by the concerned Ministries. The recommendations of the Committee contained in the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Report, action taken thereon by the Ministry and recommendations/observations of the Committee on each item of action taken has been given in the succeeding paragraphs. RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 5. The Committee notes that during the year 2009-10, the allocation was reduced to Rs.950.00 crore at RE stage, out of which, an amount of Rs.776.16 crore is likely to be utilized till Feb. 2010. Thus, 19% of allocation is likely to be utilized in just one month. The Committee does not approve the practice of last minute spending at the fag end of the financial year. The Committee in its earlier Reports, has conveyed this feeling to the Ministries concerned. The Ministry should follow the exiting norms strictly to ensure that the funds are utilized, as far as possible, evenly throughout the year. The Committee also does not find any reason for reducing the allocation at RE stage. Tourism is the largest service industry with a contribution of 6.23% of the GDP and 8.78% of the total employment in India. Since Tourism projects are implemented by the States, there is need to sensitize them to ensure optimum utilization of funds and issuing utilization certificate on time. The Ministry should make concerted efforts and evolve a coordination mechanism with States. (Recommendation at para 10 of 154th Report) Reply of the Government 6. The recommendation has been noted. FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 7. The Committee notes the reply. RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 8. The Committee, however, finds that in the case of utilization of fund for product/infrastructure development for circuit during 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10, expenditure has been more than what was allocated in the budget. The Committee recommends that if the schemes are chalked out well in time by the Ministry, they can approach the Planning Commission/Ministry of Finance for allocation of more funds at BE stage itself. (Para 16 ibid ) Reply of the Government 9. The recommendation has been noted. FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 10. The Committee notes the reply and hopes that the Ministry will be careful while formulating their schemes to ensure that correct projection of required fund are made at BE stage itself. RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 11. The Committee is of the view that the Ministry should make all out efforts for the development of a particular circuit which is approved for implementation. Moreover various States should coordinate and develop inter-state circuits. Southern and central circuits need to be developed with more emphasis on travel connectivity. (Para 17 ibid ) Reply of the Government 12. The Ministry is making concerted efforts to develop the identified circuits including inter-State circuits with the help of concerned States Governments. Efforts are also being made to improve the connectivity of tourist destinations and circuits in coordination with Ministries of Civil Aviation, Railways and Road transports and Highways. FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 13. The Committee would likes to be informed about the circuits particularly inter-State circuits identified for development. RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 14. The Committee finds no justification for making provision of plan outlay in the Budget under the Head-Creation of Land Bank for Hotels when the plan allocation remained unutilized since the inception of the scheme. The Committee, therefore, recommends the scheme may be revised and modified with view to ensure that development of accommodation for tourists is not affected. (Para 20 ibid ) Reply of the Government 15. The recommendation has been noted. FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 16. The Committee is not satisfied with the reply and would like to know about the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations of the Committee to revise and modify the Scheme ‘Creation of Land Bank for Hotels’. RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 17. The Committee came to know that ITDC is doing the illumination work in some of major monuments in Delhi. Further, ITDC also host light & sound show in some of the monuments which is being appreciated. Particularly Delhi will be hosting XIX Commonwealth Games this year the light and Sound show can be used to attract more tourist and to acquaint them with the history as well as majesty of our famous monuments. The Committee, therefore, recommends that the Ministry should ensure that this year sufficient funds are allocated to ITDC for this job. (Para 22 ibid ) Reply of the Government 18. The Ministry of Tourism sanctioned an amount of Rs.23.75 crore to ITDC for illumination of 13 numbers of monuments in Delhi. The work is being completed in a phased manner.