US agrees to review Travel Advisory against NE

The Donald Trump Administration may soon change the way the US Government perceives Assam as a destination to visit, from a tourist’s perspective. Since April 2015, the US government categorized Assam and other NE States as areas disturbed by frequent incidents of violence by ‘ethnic insurgent groups’ and issued travel advisories to its citizens to avoid travel by train at night, travel outside major cities at night, and crowds. Soon after taking charge of the department, Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote to the US Government seeking a review of the travel advisory. The Minister wrote to US Ambassador to India, Mr. Richard Verma who has agreed to review the status accorded to Assam and the other NE States.   The US government employees are also prohibited from travelling to the region without the permission from the US consulate general in Kolkata. Sarma has also asked UK and Australia to immediately lift their adverse travel advisories issued to citizens, asking them to avoid visiting Assam. The minister has taken special onus to boost the inflow of tourists to the State in recent times including the launch of the Awesome Assam campaign with global icon, Priyanka Chopra.     US Government’s Definition of a Travel Warning: We issue a Travel Warning when we want you to consider very carefully whether you should go to a country at all. Examples of reasons for issuing a Travel Warning might include unstable government, civil war, ongoing intense crime or violence, or frequent terrorist attacks. We want you to know the risks of traveling to these places and to strongly consider not going to them at all. Travel Warnings remain in place until the situation changes; some have been in effect for years. Stay updated on the go with GPlus News. Click here to download the app for your device.