J-K picks Mufti146;s constituency for New Year bash

8216;8216;The department has despatched invitations to Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Dutt, Aishwarya Rai, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rohit Bal, but we are yet to get any confirmation,8217;8217; said Farooq A. Shah, senior tourism officer.

Though Tourism Department officials maintain that they only wanted to add 8216;8216;one more8217;8217; destination on Kashmir8217;s winter calendar, the rationale behind choosing Pahalgam 8212; instead of Gulmarg, the traditional venue of the carnival 8212; is obvious. Besides, Pahalgam is not just the CM8217;s Assembly constituency but also the first Assembly segment in the Valley from where has won an election in his decades-old political career.

Saleem Beigh, director-General of the Tourism Department, said, 8216;8216;There is no politics involved in holding the new year8217;s programme at Pahalgam. We just want to inform the tourists that there is one more winter destination besides Gulmarg8217;8217;.

8216;8216;If they wanted to add any tourist destination in their winter itinerary, Sonamarg should have come first,8217;8217; said a former tourism director-general on the condition of anonymity.