Vijayapura: The prolonged lockdown and Covid pandemic has already made the life of tourist guides miserable and the delay in government giving relief amounts announced has been adding to their woes.
The guides are anxiously waiting for the government to release the relief amount which was announced nearly three months ago by the State government.
After many tourist guides protested across the state for not announcing any kind of Covid relief funds for the second consecutive year, former Tourism Minister C. P. Yogeshwar had announced Rs 5,000 relief package to each tourist guide in the state in June. The government has claimed that this relief package will benefit around 400 tourist guides working across the state.
However, the tourist guides are still running from pillar to post to get the relief funds announced by the previous government.
Rajashekar Kalyanmath, tourist guide in Vijayapura said that they have submitted all the required documents including bank details last month itself but the relief amount is yet to be credited.
“When we knocked on the doors of the officers concerned, they claim that it is because of technical glitches the process is being delayed”, he said.
He said that with consistent efforts, the government finally announced the relief package but the guides have been waiting for the last three months for the relief. “So far, no tourist guide has received a single penny from the government. With no business the life has become difficult to manage,” exclaimed accredited tourist guide Kalyanmath.
There are around 43 accredited tourist guides in both the districts. As many as 35 tourist guides can be seen working in Badami, Aihole and UNESCO world heritage site Pattadakal in Bagalkot district alone and eight tourist guides in world famous Gol Gumbaz of Vijayapura.
Chandragund Katageri, senior tourist guide in Badami, pointed that, “though visitors to heritage places is increasing, the people hardly avail service from tourist guides. It is only foreign and other state tourists who prefer guides rather than the local people. The business has remained dull affecting the livelihood. Many guides that don’t have another source of income have managed to run their families with the relief package received from the Infosys Foundation. We had submitted the documents but the authorities found some faults in the documents related to banks. Now, we are sorting out the issues and submitting the documents again. I hope the government releases the fund at the earliest.”
It may be noted that these tourist guides don’t get any kind of honorarium from the government. The income of these workers depends completely on the tourists, mainly foreign visitors.
Gowda, In-charge Deputy Director of Tourism Bagalkot, said that the financial department is yet to release the funds for the relief package in order to carry out the further process. As soon as the funds are received to the district treasury the next process will be completed in 48 hours and the amount will be credited to the bank accounts of tourist guides. It is still under process and trying our best to get it completed at the earliest, stated Tourism DD Gowda.
