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Tourism officials go on joyrides abroad, but tourist inflow remains same

Ranvir Nayar in Paris

'Explore India in the Millennium Year' is the theme of the Union tourism ministry in its efforts to promote foreign tourism into India.

However, some senior officers of the ministry seem to have got it all wrong. Instead of promoting tourism into India, these officers have been touring various exotic locations in Europe, along with their faimilies. And all this at government expense.

In a serious case, which has come to the light, the regional director (Europe) Suman Sharma, who is based in Frankfurt, and the director of tourism office in Stockholm, Rekha Singhal, along with their families, undertook a ten-day official tour in the Scandinavian countries in July this year. The tour, during which they were accompanied by their family members also, included luxury cruises along the Norwegian Fjords.

According to reliable sources, the two officials hired two separate cars for visiting the same destinations in Norway on July 13, 16 and 18 and then undertook the cruise from July 19 to July 23, setting the Indian government back by $ 10,000 or Rs 500,000. The matter came to light when Singhal’s husband lost his passport in Norway and the matter had to be referred to the Indian mission there.

``I would like to see how they can justify these trips to the head office. You can not promote tourism by undertaking luxury cruises. And why do two senior officials travel to the same destination the same days ? And why can't they take the same cars, if they have to be there together. And above all, how do they justify the presence of their families, if the officials were there only on official purposes?’’ asks a source.

Sources say these kind of trips are hardly exceptional. They say the European offices of the tourism ministry have been flouting all rules and regulations of the Indian government and a specific directive from the Director General of Tourism, Ashok Pradhan, about undertaking official tours.

Earlier this year, the government had announced a 10 per cent cut in the non-plan expenditure, following the Kargil conflict. There was also a specific ban on foreign travel, unless it was absolutely mandatory. However, neither the cut in non-plan expenditure nor the ban on foreign travel had any impact on the expenses of the several offices of the tourism ministry overseas.

This forced Pradhan, who is also tourism secretary, to issue a specific directive controlling all tours undertaken by the tourism offices overseas.

The directive, dated March 11, made it absolutely compulsory for the officials to obtain prior permission of New Delhi before undertaking any travels and it also laid down procedural norms to be followed by the officials after the tour has been completed.

``But these directives have just remained on the paper. Tours and trips are organised without any thought to the cost and benefits of these. Most officials treat them as ways of earning extra TA (travel allowance). And the senior officers take them as opportunities to take their families on sight-seeing tours all over Europe. Even a basic formality like filing the tour report is not being observed,’’ a source told rediff.com.

Sources say lack of any monitoring and the absolute discretion exercised by some senior officials in how to spend the annual budget leads to total misuse of government funds. They point out that despite an annual budget in excess of Rs 300 million, the regional director (Europe) has failed to meet his annual targets for the last several years. A recently completed audit shows that even a modest target of 15 per cent annual increase in tourist traffic to India from Europe has not been met. In sharp contrast, even a small country like Tunisia has been able to register over 40 per cent growth rates in tourism inflows from Europe over the last three years.

``A complete overhaul and a well monitored functioning of the overseas offices is the only way to ensure that the government money is not spent as leave travel allowance by the officials,’’ says a source.

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