Basishtha Temple: Infrastructure set to repel tourists!

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Nov 12: Basistha Temple in Guwahati has all that can dispel tourists. The temple is a tourist destition, especially for pilgrims from rest of India and abroad like Nepal and Bangladesh.

The Assam Tourism Department has been spending crores of rupees to woo tourists to the State. However, the state of affairs in Basistha Temple, one of the pilgrim centres in Guwahati, has been seriously out of sync with the urgency being shown by the department concerned. Better tourism infrastructure is one of the criteria that are a must to woo tourists.

People who live near the Temple have no potable water. Even there are no hygienic toilets for tourists visiting the temple.

Speaking to The Sentinel a resident of the Basistha area said: “I’ve being living in this area for 20 years. I feel bad to see the condition of the temple. This is the season when tourists come over here to see the temple and its beauty. However, the condition of the temple lets everyone in the State down. We feel shame in front of guests. The Assam Government is laying stress on promoting the tourism. It should also take care of tourist spots like Basistha Temple, providing them necessary infrastructure so that visitors don’t have to face any problems. Shooting with Priyanka Chopra for promotion of tourism is fine. However, the department needs to be very careful in misplaced priorities, if any.”

“The temple doesn’t have a toilet, drinking water facility and even the river is full of garbage due to deposition of puja materials thrown in it. The available toilets in the temple are not in usable condition,” the resident said.

Talking to this reporter, one of the temple committee members said, “The number of tourists visiting the temple is decreasing. The GMC should take necessary steps to clean the temple premises. We feel shy to say that we live in such an unhygienic way. The government should take the responsibility.”

A resident of Basistha and retried officer Kulodhar Barman   said: “Both the government and GMC should take the matter seriously. Tourist flow is the one way to collect revenue. Tourists stopping visiting the spot will certainly a bad omen for the State. In one hand the Government is spending big amount for promoting the tourism like taking Priyanka Chopra as the brand ambassador for Tourism, on the other, they have forgot to develop tourist spots in the State.”