Friday, 26 January 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Village in U’kashi district uninhabited since Indo-China conflict in 1962
The Tourism department will renovate six dilapidated homes in the Jadung village of Uttarkashi and promote them as homestays. This village has been uninhabited since the 1962 Indo-China conflict when the villagers were moved out. This is part of the first phase of measures planned in an initiative planned by the government to rehabilitate such border villages under the Vibrant Village scheme. Officials informed that while the Tourism department will be redeveloping the houses as homestays, these shall be operated/run by the villagers. The houses shall be refurbished in vernacular architecture using locally available material.
Tourism secretary Sachin Kurve informed that this will enable generation of self-employment opportunities for the villagers of Jadung and provide a unique tourism destination. He also informed that the villagers shall have to operate the homestays at least for a period of 10 years. The homestay operators will be chosen by the Uttarkashi district administration by seeking applications from the original inhabitants of the village through a committee. The operational guidelines for the homestays have also been finalized, Kurve said.
The Tourism department is also planning to provide adequate skill and soft skills training to the homestay operators, which would be organised from time to time by the department which will also provide necessary support for marketing and promotion of these homestays.
This unique initiative of the Tourism department was recently approved by the cabinet and will now be rolled out. It is expected that the scheme shall become a milestone towards reverse migration through government intervention and create new opportunities in tourism.
