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HANDOVER AYODHYA TO INDORE

If tourism is one of the visible spin-offs, let proven experts handle the town’s civic maintenance.

ome local municipalities do work hard on sanitation but the sections of society. Indore did it. Why can’t every other city?
Susual narrative is that the littering habit is inherent in the For years tourism conclaves and associations mouthed the
common people. However, there is no reason to be smug and not importance of spiritual or religious tourism as a big revenue
step up to hold our own bull by its horns. It is time to pick and generator. Last month Ayodhya emphasised it with a bang.
select one example and work on it. The evidence of its potential is now spilling all over the place.
It’s easy to blame the teeming public for littering. Despite Estimates deduce an Rs 20,000 crore revenue from visitors in the first
almost a decade of Swachh Bharat initiatives, what meets the eye financial year itself. Last time I visited the temple town I had to contend
leaves much to be desired. Special occasions and with mosquitoes in the best accommodations I could find in a small
VIP visits do make a difference to the worst street that was supposedly the main market centre. Today, the scene is
kept tourist destinations but post that quite the opposite.
brief interval, it is business as usual. There are many more destinations that could offer a similar tourism
The recent consecration of the prospect. State governments are waking up to it. Witness the effort at
Ayodhya temple has catapulted the Puri in Odisha to build better environs at Jagannath temple complex.
town as a potential city that will However not much is heard about any consolidated attempt to upgrade
define the expertise of modern the entire city’s civic infrastructure beyond that.
India to salvage infrastructure, Coming to Ayodhya, the state government plans to make it the
civic systems and tourism cleanest city in the state. The first step in line with this objective was
management. It will serve an additional 1,500 Safai Mitras (sanitation workers) on the streets to
as a beacon for similar civic achieve cleanliness. Next in line is a 100% implementation of zero waste
development in Tier 2 and even levels by June. That does sound laudable but needs to be monitored.
tier 3 destinations. There has been On the 23rd January I watched nervously when dedicated crowds
a colossal change in Ayodhya’s thronged from 3 am on that cold wintry pre-dawn to enter the temple.
infrastructure and facilities recently Six hours later when it opened, the fancy equipment and systems didn’t
but the development is wide open. quite seem to be working. Thankfully quick reaction from authorities
The nation and a significant part streamlined the scene in a few hours. The question is, why wasn’t this
of the world is now quite aware of it and a anticipated?
stream of international media and visitors will soon The sage discussions on benefits of religious tourism often raised
be making a beeline. This can be a good test case how spiritual in seminars and interactions with tourism departments need to be
tourism can be brought centre stage. implemented with an urgency that is immediate and nationwide.
It can also become a showpiece of how Indian authorities and The economics of that temple town and the entire district has
tourism departments can up their act, especially if it’s beyond the undergone a tectonic shift with a financial windfall for almost every
pale of the glitzy crowds that sashayed past on their 100 private small business, hotelier, innkeeper, guide, taxi driver and dhaba owner.
jets on the 22nd last month in that dusty old town of Uttar Pradesh. Many mega hotel chains are scurrying to look for properties to create a
Herein is the significance of the heading of this column. The same presence.
common people and the same official set up of the same kind if There is a need, more than ever, to keenly observe the Municipal
people can make a difference. Corporation of Ayodhya and compare it with Indore rather strictly. Any
The municipal corporation of Indore in Madhya Pradesh has takers for spiritual tourism?
surprised the country by being adjudged India’s cleanest city for Anurag Yadav
almost seven years in a row. Industry Expert
The heading might sound provocative but it’s a call to put an Anurag Yadav is a travel author and columnist, writing on hospitality and design.
end to passing the blame of poor sanitation, maintenance and even An avid traveller, he has published five books and divides his time equally
street discipline to the people, especially those from the poorer between Delhi and London.The views expressed in the column are of the author,

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