Tourism to provide employment to HP youth, says Anurag

Shimla, May 17 (UNI) Anurag Thakur, BJP's candidate for the May 22 Hamirpur Parliamentary bypolls, today vowed to give a boost to tourism and sports activities in the state and said these two sectors had the potential to employ 50,000 youths of the state.

Expressing concern over the rising number of unemployed youth in the state, he said tourism alone could provide employment to a large number of educated youth of the state as it was the biggest employer in the world.

In a statement issued here, Mr Thakur said if he was elected to the Lok Sabha in the Parliamentary elections, he would seek special grants for Himachal in Tourism, Eco Tourism, adventure sports, Village Tourism and home stay.

He said sports infrastructure in the state would also be improved to provide opportunities to the youth who were interested in taking sports as a career option.

Citing the example of Switzerland, Finland and New Zealand, he said these countries, with similar geographical conditions, had managed to develop tourism infrastructure to give it a boost, besides other sporting activities.

Mr Thakur said since both tourism and sports had a potential to employ 50,000 educated youth of the state in the next few years, he would raise these issues in the Parliament.

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