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Staff crunch hits Tourism Department

BHUBANESWAR: ‘Two birds with one arrow’, the saying has come true for the top officials of the State Tourism Directorate in Orissa. Call it a coincidence or a deliberate choice, top officials in the directorate are opting for two posts at a time. .

Minister Debi Prasad Mishra is handling Excise along with Tourism, both considered as high-profile departments of the Government in terms of revenue generation. Commissioner Parag Gupra is also acting as the secretary to the Orissa Governor Likewise, Director Rabi Narayan Nanda is the director for Tourism and Culture!

But the irony is important posts like the post of the joint director in the department is vacant for the past 10 months. Of the two posts of the deputy director, one was abolished while the other has been vacant since the officer was suspended.

The post of assistant directors, both at the State Headquarters and in New Delhi were kept vacant for years for reasons best known to the Government.

A women lecturer who is the better half of an IAS officer has been taking care of the high-profile post of the Assistant Tourism Officer in New Delhi, an official said, adding that the list of vacancies in the posts of tourist officers at the district-level is even longer.

Lack of a proper system in the posting of officials has jeopardised several major development projects of the department.

The Centre has released funds for rural tourism promotion project; but there are no officials to implement and monitor the projects, an official of the department pointed out.

Similar was the fate of the ambitious Dhauli peace park project that has been a long time favourite of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the Buddhist tourism circuit project or the silk-route tourism project envisioned recently, revealed the officials.

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