Editor,
Recently, the Arunachal Pradesh government rolled out a very lengthy tourism policy, which is definitely good for the growth of tourism industry in our state. But the government forgot one very important point: in order to implement this policy, technical personnel are needed in the districts, ie, district tourism officers (DTO) and tourist information officers (TIO). But half of the districts are without a regular DTO. In the policy, there was no mention of creation and advertisement of DTO and TIO posts, which is very surprising for unemployed tourism youths.
In the past, only a few districts were popular for tourism. With the improvement in road connectivity and awareness, many districts are now emerging as important tourist destinations – the best example being Kurung Kumey.
Like Assam, Meghalaya, and Sikkim, our state is also very popular amongst domestic and international tourist. In these states, the governments give full and proper attention to the tourism department and from time to time advertisements for the posts of tourism officers are floated, because DTOs play a very vital role at the district level.
But in our our state, for the last 10-15 years, no direct recruitment of DTO has been made. One single post of TIO was advertised in 2022, the written exam for which is still pending with the APPSC.
I thought that our chief minister and tourism minister are from popular tourism places and better understand tourism, and that we unemployed tourism youths would get government job opportunities, But alas, in our state people who have studied tourism are unemployed but the hotel owners, restaurant owners, transporters, etc, are in an advantageous position.
Our government should understand that there is an age limit for government jobs. Many have become overage while waiting for advertisement. The APPSC should also make its stand clear as to whether it will conduct written exam for the single post of TIO or not. One cannot keep on preparing for such a long time.
We unemployed tourism youths are really in pain and frustrated due to almost nil government job opportunities.
Tagu Tapum,
Pachin Colony,
Naharlagun