MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Khawaja Farooq Ahmed on Wednesday passed a number of directions to different departments of the state to facilitate and welcome tourists arriving in the liberated territory during Eid holidays.

According to a circular issued by the Services and General Administration Department, the prime minister directed the tourism department to establish welcome booths at entry points, particularly Bararkot, Gujjar Kohala and Azad Patan, where among other things leaflets containing information about tourist attraction sites should also be made available to the tourists.

Reception committees, comprising officials and employees of the divisional and district administration, police, tourism, highways, sports, youth and culture, disaster management, forests should be formed to remain present at designated places full time for the safety, convenience and guidance of tourists, he added.

For the sake of emergency response, the prime minister directed the district administration, police, highways department, electricity, disaster management and health department to establish joint and departmental control rooms at the district level so as to meet any eventuality without loss of time.

Furthermore, he said that special arrangements should be made for cleanliness in streets and markets. In this regard, the officers, staff and resources of local government institutions should be utilised diligently, he said, directing the Secretary Local Government and Rural Development and Secretary Local Government Board to take immediate steps in this regard.

In order to provide quality accommodation to tourists and save them from overcharging, the prime minister ordered district officers concerned to hold meetings with the owners of hotels and guesthouses to fix reasonable rent and adhere to cleanliness/hygiene norms.

PM Ahmed further said that all government guesthouses should be made available for accommodation of tourists during tourist seasons and no unnecessary restrictions should be imposed at any stage.

The AJK premier also directed all deputy commissioners to make arrangements to update information on the exact number of tourists and vehicles arriving in their respective districts during the holidays.

However, in the process of collecting the information, stopping tourists in an indignant manner at any place and causing inconvenience to them should be avoided at all costs, he said.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2023