Despite high tourist flow, Amritsar Tourism Department low on staff

Even though the holy city hosts a record number of tourists daily, yet the Tourism Department has not deployed staff in full strength to cater to the needs of visitors and promote tourism.

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On the contrary, its offices here are facing staff crunch. And adding to the misery of the outsourced staff on duty is that they are being paid less wages. So, they are always on the look out for opportunities abroad. At least, three tourism officers have left the job to settle overseas in the past five years.

The Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Punjab, has only three tourism officers to look after its five offices situated at the Amritsar railway station, international airport, Attari and two at the Golden Temple. No official is getting government pay grade and all are outsourced employees, whose salaries are not even well defined.

Most of these tourism officers, who have a degree in travel tourism or hospitality, efficiency in Punjabi, English and Hindi, besides basic knowledge of a foreign language, were hired in 2009 at a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 with a promise to increase it by Rs 750 per year. As per the initial announcement their salary was to be revised after every five years.

In 2016, the DC rate of Chandigarh was introduced, which increased their salary to Rs 32,000. However, the then Chief Minister, Charanjit Singh Channi, withdrew the DC Chandigarh rate and introduced the DC rate of the home district. It plummeted their salary to Rs 14,000. After they took up their plight with the head office, their salary was increased to a mediocre Rs 25,000.

The holy city houses a number of tourist sites, including the Gobindgarh Fort, Bhagwan Valmiki temple in the Ram Teerath area, Partition museum, besides several historic gurdwaras. Tourism officers can create a conducive environment for the visitors to explore different shades of the city.

“Keeping in view a large number of tourist sites in the entire district, there should be a post of district development tourism officer, who can liaison between the government and different stakeholders involved in tourism,” said Gurinder Singh Johal, chairperson of Punjab chapter of Indian Association of Tour Operators. He said different aspects of the city remained unexplored due to inadequate staff strength and one of this was rural tourism.

Rameshinder Singh Sandhu, a freelance travel writer, said, “There is abundant opportunity in farm stay places in Punjab. The Amritsar-Attari road and train routes can be a good example to imitate. In addition, the countryside has the old world charm of railway stations, rest houses and infrastructure of water, irrigation and other departments. These things can transport visitors to the old world of rural Punjab.

Malwinder Singh Jaggi, Secretary, Tourism Department, said the staff shortage was manageable and not serious in nature.