The Jammu and Kashmir government has dropped Gulmarg and Dachigam from the itinerary of the visiting G20 delegates on security grounds, in a setback to the Centre’s efforts to showcase normality in the Valley.
The cancellation has coincided with discreet government attempts to ensure normality in Srinagar, the venue of a three-day G20 meet from Monday. Shopkeepers in the city have been receiving calls, purportedly from police, asking them not to shut their businesses in response to calls by separatists on the occasion.
Jammu and Kashmir has been put on maximum alert as the Valley is set to host the third G20 meeting on tourism, the biggest international event in the Union Territory after the 2019 scrapping of special status.
Official sources said the 60-odd delegates would no longer be taken to Gulmarg and Dachigam for sightseeing, suggesting the visits would be limited to Srinagar.
Gulmarg is barely 55km from the Srinagar city centre. The Dachigam national park, home to the hangul stag, is on Srinagar's outskirts.
Though officials claim that the last-minute changes were necessitated by the busy schedule of the delegates, sources said the change was made on the advice of the security agencies.
Sources said there were inputs that militants might try to disrupt the visit of the G20 delegates to the two places.
Another source said the authorities had made a whole lot of preparations to deck up Gulmarg and Dachigam for the visit. “The cancellation is surprising. Even the interior roads of the Srinagar-Gulmarg road had been spruced up,” he said.
Gulmarg Development Authority officials had been posting pictures of the changes, including new wooden signages installed at multiple places from Magam to Gulmarg to receive the guests.
An official said they had prepared a grand presentation for the guests at Gulmarg. “A VIP lounge had been established for them. The lighting was improved,” he said.
Officials said the delegates would now be taken to the Mughal gardens on the Dal Lake's banks, and Polo View market, which was turned into the city’s first pedestrian market recently as part of the ongoing Srinagar Smart City project. All these places are within a 10km radius of the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre on the Dal's banks, the main venue of the meeting.
The government has given a massive facelift to the route from Srinagar airport to the SKICC, painting the walls with the G20 logo and putting up hoardings to welcome the delegates.
Shopkeepers in the city, however, complained they had been receiving calls for the past few days to keep the markets open.
“They (police) came some days back to our market and took the phone numbers of all shopkeepers. Yesterday, we got calls not to shut the market during the next few days,” a shopkeeper said.
A statement shared on the WhatsApp group of a shopping complex in Srinagar said the local police station had conveyed through “their messengers” on May 19 to keep the shops open.
