My tourist guide license was issued in January 2010 and it was valid up to 29th of January, 2013. My license said that I needed to surrender my license 45 days before the date of expiry in order to get it renewed. I started contacting Ministry of Tourism office in New Delhi and it seemed like they did not have any information. Every time I contacted them they said that I should contact my local tourist guide association. It was a very big problem for me because I never took any membership of any guide association in Varanasi. Finally I got some information from one of my friends in Delhi. He had the proforma of the form I need to fill up.
He also told me that I needed to go to Delhi personally to deposit my license with tourism office. My friend suggested me to talk with the Delhi office before leaving for Delhi. I contacted the Delhi office and they told me a really strange rule that they would accept renewal application only on Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays in the second and third week of January. I was already booked for the second week hence I had to cancel a couple of bookings from the first week and flew to Delhi. I reached at the tourism office in Delhi around 11 AM and they asked me come after 4 PM. I thought that they asked me to come later because maybe the concerned office was not present there.
I was just wandering around here and there for 5 hours and finally when I reached there again by 4, the same officer whom I met in the morning took my application, made me sign on a few papers and issued me a temporary license which said that my license was under renewal process hence I am allowed to work as a regional level tourist guide till 31st of April. I have no idea why they called me to Delhi if they only wanted me to sign a few papers or made me wait for 5 hours if the same person from the morning was responsible for issuing my license. If it was all about signing a few papers then they should have better organized it by post or online. I don’t know when we will start using our IT knowledge for ourselves. Anyways, everything went well but I didn’t like going to Delhi.
It is very hard to expect logic, where there are no thoughts. (for the officer’s behavior).
I just saw your citizen journalist video on youtube, and I understand, you want to change things. This is a very good attitude, you shouldn’t give up on it, since India, Varanasi especially is a very beautiful place, but so hard to live!
What I can suggest to you, next time maybe just ask a: Why do I need to come back later? Try never being aggressive or arrogant, just ask a why. It won’t change maybe not even the situation, but it might let think the other party next time, if you could sign even in that very moment those papers. (maybe the papers were not there yet?)
do i get the same tmeplate which you filled do you have that copy and what happned to the original license whetehr they have send you by post or you need to go and collect those personally.
i will be same situation after few days my friend
Hello sir,
I’ll be obliged if you could tell me the procedure to become a tour escort. If its convenient for you I’d like to have a word with you regarding it. If you are fine with please send your mobile no. I’ll be thankful to you.
sahnikaran7@gmail.com is my email
Thanks and regards
Namaste Sangharsh,
I am not really sure whether you would also get the same template. In my case the form was sent to the local tourist guide union and I got it from there. They have not renewed the license yet. I have heard that there might a one week refresher training. I am told by other guides that there licenses were renewed for next three months which I did not get done as I was away. Anyways, will keep you updated once I have some information.
Thanks,