The Hindu : New Delhi News : Row in Rajya Sabha over Kerala tourism

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Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
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New Delhi

Row in Rajya Sabha over Kerala tourism

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Minister of Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni and Samajwadi Party (SP) Members led by Jaya Bachchan and Amar Singh clashed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday over whether Kerala was being given enough money to promote tourism.

Ms. Soni asserted during Question Hour that she was “throwing a challenge” and would apologise if the Centre’s neglect of Kerala was proved. SP Members hit back by asking her to stay true to her word after A. Vijayaraghavan (Communist Party of India - Marxist) said the Centre had approved only seven out of 22 tourism projects proposed by the State for the current year.

Even as SP Members demanded that Ms. Soni apologise for her comments after the CPI(M) Member’s observations, the Minister stuck to her guns by pointing out that the allocation for Kerala in the past two years was the highest so far. “We in the Ministry do not allocate funds based on the political composition of the government in states,” she said while listing some of the projects sanctioned to enable the State build human capacity for tourism.

Funds

But SP Members were unimpressed and pointed out the difference between allocating funds and actually releasing them. It was necessary to focus on Kerala because of the current troubles surrounding tourism in Goa, said Ms. Bachchan.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari brought an end to the verbal skirmish by asking another Member to pose a supplementary question.

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