The annual cleaning and fishing festival was held at Panzath spring in Qazigund of south Kashmir on Sunday. Hundreds of people from Panzath, adjoining areas and some other places took part in the festival. According to reports Panzath was declared a new tourist destination some time back and a park was also established there.
Local people said that except for the park nothing was done to develop the place. They demand measures to bring Panzath on the tourist map in real sense. There is a need to develop the area so that it attracts tourists and generates employment for the local people. It is not only about Panzath, all such identified tourist destinations must get the adequate attention as far as the development is concerned.
The required facilities must be kept available at such destinations. With tourism flourishing again for last several years there is a need to identify more tourist destinations and develop those. There is no shortage of such places. The only requirement is to bring such places on tourist map. For that, development of these places is important.
The tourism must not remain confined to a few known and popular tourist destinations only. Those places are important and have been the backbone of Kashmir tourism. Besides these major spots the visitors must be facilitated to visit other such places also. The expansion of tourist places is equally important.
Tourism has been helping the Kashmir economy and this economy has to be strengthened further. That can be done by creating necessary tourism related infrastructure in other areas as well. If tourism is promoted in other areas, it can provide employment opportunities to the unemployed youth.
The tourism potential has to be tapped and must not remain untapped. Panzath spring is located at a distance of one km from Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. That way it can be a good tourist attraction. This spring is a source of water for around 25 adjoining villages.
The water is not only used for drinking purpose but for irrigating the agriculture and horticulture land in the villages. It is good that the local people clean the spring during the festival every year.
The concerned government departments too must take steps for safeguarding the spring from pollution and make plans to project the place as a tourist destination as well.