Recently Chief Secretary, chaired a meeting of Tourism Department attended by the MD J&K Bank and other concerned officers to take appraisal of measures being taken by the Department for identifying the gaps, policy updates and scope for improvements to strengthen the homestays for overall promotion of tourism sector in J&K.

He impressed upon the department to come-up with a comprehensive policy for development of Homestays across districts of the UT. He called upon them to prepare the document in next one month after having consultations with all the stakeholders.

He underscored the need for developing a new loan product by the financial institutions which would encompass every activity that could be done to promote the homestays in the region. He advised for exploring option for increasing the number of rooms that could be converted into homestay besides the quantum of finance that could be secured for the construction and upgradation of homestays.

He emphasized that the ambit of this scheme should be widened to accommodate the concerns of the people associated with this tourism practice.

He urged the Department to make provision for convergence with other schemes like PMEGP, PM Surya Ghar Yojana or other such schemes in the policy for accrual of multiple benefits to the people at grassroots level.