House panel on visit to Valley stranded

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 23

The entire Parliamentary Standing Committee on transport, tourism and culture was stranded in the Valley due to heavy snowfall and cancellation of all flights.

The committee, headed by Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh, was in Jammu and Kashmir for a three-day visit to engage stakeholders on the challenges being faced by the sector.

The committee members who were to return from J&K today could not take a flight out with one of the members, BJP’s Sushil Modi, saying, “The entire committee is stranded in Srinagar due to heavy snowfall. All flights have been cancelled.”

The 31-member committee during its stay in J&K met several representatives with MoS PMO Jitendra Singh and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah also present in the meetings.

Among stakeholders the committee met was a delegation of the Kashmir Chambers of Commerce and Industry which flagged the issue of frequent closure of the Jammu-Srinagar highway and demanded that it be made an all weather road.

TG Venkatesh said after meeting various delegations they realised that the UT’s tourism and archaeological sites presented a massive potential for growth and added that the panel would apprise the Centre of steps that could be taken to strengthen the sector.

The visit of the parliamentary committee to J&K to review the status of roads, highways, tourism and transport was the first of its kind initiative since the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into UTs of J&K and Ladakh on August 5, 2019.