Tourism minister hands over urn carrying Jallianwala Bagh's soil to Prime Minister

New Delhi: After the Parliament passed the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment), Bill, 2019, the Tourism and Culture Minister, Prahlad Singh Patel, handed over the urn, carrying the soil of Jallianwala Bagh to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

While speaking to the mediapersons, Patel announced that the urn of soil will be kept at the National Museum for tourists. "People who are not able to visit Jallianwala Bagh will get to see it at the National Museum here in the national capital. Unfortunately, after a century we could bring the soil of sacrifices to Delhi," the Minister said.

He also said his ministry will revamp the Swadesh Darshan scheme for integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits in the country and has moved cabinet for the same. "A social audit has been conducted in the Swadesh Darshan scheme and there is a lot of room for changes. We have moved the cabinet for the same. We have discussed whether we should work on select circuits or one circuit at a time or should include circuits on all states at the same time. The Prasad scheme has yielded good results," Patel said.

Around 79 projects have been sanctioned under the scheme since its launch in 2014-15 as per the ministry's website and the total amount sanctioned is around Rs 6,000 crore.

Further, he stated that all iconic tourist sites of the country will now mandatorily have a room dedicated for mothers going there with kids. Patel said that despite a high number of kids travelling with their mothers, there were no basic facilities for them at the tourist sites. "None of our sites had this facility and one can't even imagine the trouble mothers have to go through with kids. This room will have a toilet and all other facilities to aid the mothers," the minister told. There are at present 17 iconic sites that have been identified by the culture ministry. Recently the minister inaugurated one such room at the Taj Mahal.