In a special meeting held at the Dogra Sadar Sabha Bhawan, the Sabha expressed their deep sorrow on the loss of two precious lives and five injured during the mock trial run of the Gandola project. The meeting presided by Th. Gulchain Charak, President DSS expressed their dismay on the way this project has been handled from the beginning with total disregard to the aspirations, sensitivities and tourism needs of the vast Jammu population that houses people from all parts of the state.The former Minister, Th. Gulchain Singh Charak pointed out that initially it was planned for the Gandola rope bridge to connect the Mubarak Mandi heritage site with Bag-e Bahu and Mahamaya templeto offer a package tour to include the magnificent heritage site of Mubarak Mandi complex, the museum, archives and the palaces of pristine glory. The Gandola destinations were altered to deliberately exclude the centre of Dogra Heritage site that could be of great tourism attraction. It is most agonizing that such conspiracies were going on the sly with all the local Jammu leadership in power or out of power have remained unconcerned or may have caused silent endorsement by looking the other way.The accident even before its commissioning has caused apprehensions in the public mind who were all keen to see the project as a tourism attraction, while a delegation of the DSS discussed the viability of connecting an uplift to the Mubarak Mandi site from the city end of Gandola with the govt. including the governor’s administration time and again, but of no use. The members expressed further doubts about the propriety of the selected sites with soft sedimentary soil and uncontrolled rampant excavation of sand, stones and soil erosions. The DSS demanded a magisterial inquiry into the accident with technical experts in attendance. President DSS further projected a necessity to re-examine the whole project afresh in a time bound manner for all the safety parameters intact as also inclusion of the Mubarak Mandi connectivity/ uplift. He also pointed out that all Jammu tourism related projects must be completed fast to be ready before the summer tourism season. He also exhorted all the Jammu leaders to rise above their party lines for the cause of promoting these projects which are the life line not only of tourism but also related to trade, commerce, hoteling, handicrafts and merchandise or do not raise the hollow slogans about the discrimination being meted out to the Jammuites. The former minister warned that the elections are drawing closer and the population in the Jammu division will not ignore these deliberate attempts to undermine the interests of this region. He especially appealed to the youth of this region to not fall prey to the hands of so called leaders of this region for their vested political interest.
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