Tag Archives: Nitin Jawale

Odisha tourism department plans to start a special drive to encourage its citizens in Bhubaneswar to provide homestay facilities to the tourists from the first week of November. The tourism department will accord licence to house owners, who register themselves with the former. Under the scheme, the house owners can offer up to 5 rooms or 10 beds with good facilities. The house owner will be required to provide Indian breakfast to the guests and display the room tariff. Tourism officials will regularly visit the houses and take feedback of the tourists. “We will carry out awareness campaigns through advertisements so that people come to know about the homestay facility. From November first week, we will start direct registration of homes at our department. Earlier, people were applying to the Ministry of Tourism. Now the ministry has asked us to receive applications from people and conduct verification before permitting them to start homestay facility,” said Nitin Jawale, Director-Tourism, Government of Odisha. He further stressed that this move would help augment rooms for tourists in the city and other places. The state tourism department will also train the house owner, family members, caretakers and other staff on how to deal with tourists. Preferably those houses will be selected which is not crowded. Location of the houses, hygiene and safety aspects will also be considered during the inspection. Source: Times of India

Odisha Tourism has set a target to provide quality infrastructure services at all Buddhist sites in the next one year. According to Nitin Jawale, Tourism Director, Government of Odisha, promotional activities in six South Asian countries will be increased this year. Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Government of Odisha, also urged the stakeholders in tourism industry to promote Odisha’s Buddhist sites. “The Government aims to promote the rich Buddhist legacy of Odisha. Whether Buddha visited the state or not may be matter of debate, but no one can deny the prominent position Buddhism had in Kalinga, even before the Kalinga War,” Patnaik reportedly said during the 4th Kalinga International Buddhist Conclave in Bhubaneshwar. He further added that Odisha is the only state with a unique distinction of having a continuous living tradition of Buddhism in villages like Maniabandha, Naupatna, Ragadi and Mahammadpur. Jawale informed that the tourism department also has plans to bring Buddhist relics that were excavated from Lalitgiri to the State Museum for public viewing at regular intervals. They will be finally relocated from the strong room of the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) Bhubaneswar circle office to a museum near Lalitgiri by the end of December.