Tourism minister Anath Kumar has set up a task force headed by tourism secretary MP Bezbaruah to reformulate the guildelines of the Central finance assistance scheme for tourism projects by incorporating necessary amendments. According to sources, the task force has been asked to hand over the new guidelines to the ministry by the end of this month.

State tourism corporations (STCs) had been demanding direct control over Central funds for a long time as most state governments did not release the funds on time. Recently, a state government used part of the project fund to pay salaries to is employees, the sources add.

To get the earmarked funds released, the STCs have had to resort to various arm-twisting ways. An official said that one STC had approached the ministry some time back and requested it to warn the state government that the second installment of the project fund would be given only when the first installment was released by the state to the tourism corporation.

"It was only when such a letter was shot off that the fund was released," the official added.

Realising the difficulties that STCs have to face to get hold of the funds, the ministry has decided to keep state governments out of the picture. Sources said that the new guidelines would be implemented from the coming fiscal. Every year funds in the range of Rs 30-40 crore is sanctioned for tourism projects, the official said.

The tourism ministry has decided to cancel all projects that had been approved in the Seventh Plan, but were yet to be implemented and at the same time use the funds for new projects.

A time schedule for approval of projects and release of funds has also been fixed by the ministry. Forty-five days each has been allotted by the government for listing of priorities, submission of proposals from state governments and release of first installment of funds.