As before bifurcation of erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially that of Jammu region used to complain regarding discrimination at the hands of valley-centric leadership in almost every sector. Among number of out of the box initiatives taken by the Government in every sphere of life to ensure equitable development in J&K, focused attention was paid to develop tourism back in J&K, which suffered greatly due to terrorism and other challenges. As religious tourism forms a major part of the sector in J&K, due to presence of a number of shrines and religious places in both the regions, the administration initiated every possible measure to develop all such religious places having a vast potential to attract tourists from across the country, which were earlier ignored by the successive dispensations. As everyone is aware that a sea-change was observed in the famous shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, after constitution of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, requests were continuously pouring in for making functional the Shri Shiv Khori, Shri Mata Sukrala Devi and Shri Mata Bala Sundari Shrine Boards, which are presently lying defunct due to lapse of the tenure of non-official members long time back, thereby hampering the smooth functioning of these religious places, which are thronged by a number of pilgrims from various parts of the country. There are several instances, when a number of complaints were registered by pilgrims regarding lack of proper infrastructure and other necessary facilities at these shrines. Further, after the formation of the Union Territory, necessary amendments were made in the Shrine Board Act for including non-J&K residents as non-official members of the Boards. But, despite a long passage of time, nothing was witnessed on part of the administration in the regard. Now, in a significant development, the administration has decided to make these boards functional to ensure provision of all basic necessities for visiting pilgrims besides looking after the affairs of the shrines in a proper way. As per sources, a list of some persons have been recommended to the LG for nomination as non-official members of these shrines and very soon a formal announcement will be made in this regard. It is expected that with these boards back in place, these pious shrines will be developed at most modern lines for the convenience of visiting pilgrims.