Majority Of Development Authorities Lack Facility For Scientific Disposal Of Solid Waste dailyexcelsior.com

Due to bureaucratic inertia, the majority of the Tourism Development Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir doesn’t have a facility for scientific disposal of solid waste being generated in their areas of responsibility thereby posing a grave threat to the environment of the tourist destinations. Moreover, the prevailing situation is indicative of a lack of coordination between Tourism and Housing and Urban Development Departments, which otherwise have to work in a collective and planned way for the protection of a fragile environment.

From time to time, successive Governments created Development Authorities for numerous tourist destinations in Jammu and Kashmir with the objective to create the necessary infrastructure for the convenience of the tourists.
Apart from ensuring holistic development of the tourist spots under their respective jurisdictions, these Authorities were supposed to initiate all possible measures for the protection of the environment, which otherwise came under acute pressure due to the influx of tourists and subsequent generation of the large quantity of solid waste. However, environment protection neither received due attention of the Tourism Department under whose administrative control these Development Authorities function nor of the Housing and Urban Development Department, which has the responsibility of ensuring scientific disposal of solid waste in the length and breadth of the State.