July 5, 2004.At a time when international travel has
become increasingly accessible and easy, local tour within some parts
of the country still poses considerable difficulty for the tourists.
Sikkim for example is trying to eliminate the hazards of the visa for traveling
to Tibet from Sikkim. This will considerably increasing tourism
potential in the region especially amongst the foreign tourists
who often prefer to go to Tibet after a visit of the region.
However more basic improvements still remain due. The lack of regional
permits for tourist taxis results in harassment of the tourists
as well as the travel operators. In north India and many other places,
a tourist can book a taxi from Delhi and visit all the hill stations
before returning to the capital. Not so in this region, although
Darjeeling and Sikkim share boundaries and tourists, no such system
exists. Anyone arriving at New Jalpaiguri station or Bagdogra Airport,
has to change vehicle regularly to travel from one destination to
another. The local tour operators has been demanding regional tourist
permit exclusively for tourist taxis for a long time without much
success.
According to government officials, issuing of regional permits
is a matter of policy decision which can be taken only at the state
level.
Local rules and conventions framed by local taxi operators is another
menace. For example no outside vehicle is allowed to go for sight
seeing in Darjeeling. There is no legal restriction on this but
the local taxi operators create physical pressure on any vehicle
outside of Darjeeling trying to go to local sight seeing destinations.
Similar problem exist in Gangtok and Pelling as well. |
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