Tourism hit hard by lockdown in U'khand, says panel

A high-level committee in Uttarakhand set up to suggest measures to revive the economy has said the lockdown to fight COVID-19 has hit the tourism sector badly in the state and long and short term planning is needed to put it back on track.

Submitting the panel's interim report to the government at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat here on Monday, its head Indu Kumar Pandey said long, short and medium term planning is needed to offset the impact of the lockdown on the state's economy, especially tourism.

He also underlined the need for a sector-wise analysis of industries especially in view of the circumstances arising out of the return of a large number of people from the state stranded in different parts of the country.

Pandey said long, short and medium term development plans should be prepared taking into consideration the local circumstances to recover from the economic effects of the lockdown.

The district magistrates should be assigned the task of sector-wise analysis of the state's economy from district to block-level, he said.

In view of the effect of the lockdown on industrial production, lack of resources and labour shortage, new avenues of revenue generation need to be identified, he said.

Pandey also laid stress on the revival of micro-economy and advised taking the help of banks for the purpose.

He said the interim report is based also on suggestions offered by different institutions and entrepreneurs.

The chief minister said integrated efforts were needed to revive the state's economy.