App soon to bring dirty monuments to ASI’s attention

Unclean tourist areas and garbage around monuments will soon be a thing of the past. On February 22, the Union ministry of tourism will launch the Swachchh Smarak Swachchh Bharat application.

The application will allow tourists and visitors to take pictures of dirty and unclean areas near 25 monuments covered under Adarsh Smarak, and then post them on the application. The Archaeological Survey of India, which has collaborated in the clean monuments initiative, will attend to the complaint.

Nonetheless, to ensure that the complaint has been attended to, the complainant will also be informed about the action taken.

“Just as the campaign Clean India sensitises society on the importance of cleanliness, this campaign takes it further to the tourist spots, particularly monuments. The application will be launched on February 22,” tourism ministry secretary Vinod Zutshi said at the inauguration ceremony of the Vibrant Gujarat International Travel Mart at the Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre in Gandhinagar.

With an aim to spruce up India’s monuments and heritage sites and provide a hassle-free experience to both domestic and international tourists across the country, the government had launched a tourism campaign that sought to give a new impetus to PM Modi’s pet project — the Swachchh Bharat drive.

“The Swachchh Smarak Swachchh Bharat application is one of the initiatives amongst many that are part of the clean monuments campaign,” a senior official said.

According to Mr Zutshi, both domestic and international tourism has grown manifold in the last three years with initiatives like the e-visa facility. More tourist-friendly initiatives will further help in the growth of tourism, he said.

“There has been a 15 per cent growth in domestic and 10 per cent growth in foreign tourists in the last three years. We hope that initiatives to make tourism free of hassles will help the sector grow further,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel inaugurated the three-day Vibrant Gujarat International Travel Mart late on Friday. The government expects investments worth Rs 3,000 crore.