Ultimately the Tourist Traffic Police should reflect as far as possible India’s age-old philosophy that guests are to be revered and treated like gods, which in Sanskrit reads as ‘Athithidevo Bhava’
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Plans are afoot to set up Tourist Police Stations at all tourists destination across the country.
Union Tourism Minister of NE Region G. Kishan Reddy says more tourists would visit the country once they are assured of a safe and safe environment during their visit.
The minister was speaking at a function to inaugurate the newly constructed Kachiguda police station. Also attending the function were Telangana Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, the Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy, Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar and a number of other officials.
Some of the steps for this initiative include portable kiosks at vantage points in all such places and persons with multilingual proficiency and a friendly demeanour to man these kiosks.
On the subject of cybercrime, the minister says it poses a huge challenge. It can be controlled but it requires a larger measure of awareness on the part of the community.
India Tourism statistics (a Govt of India report, 2019) quoting figures for 2018 says over 28.91 million foreign tourists visited India . In terms of Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE), India ranks 13 th in the world and 7 th in the Asia Pacific region.
Tourist police are already present in some form or the other in 14 states and Union Territories. They include Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha
The initiative was launched to provide support to the tourists in terms of ;information relating to travelling in India and it also offered appropriate guidance to the tourists in distress,
India Tourism statistics (a Govt of India report, 2019) quoting figures for 2018 says over 28.91 million foreign tourists visited India . In terms of Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE), India ranks 13 th in the world and 7 th in the Asia Pacific region.
*Foreign visitors to some of the places with a high volume of traffic are as follows:
Hyderabad: 327, 297,000 (All-time high – 2018); Goa: 7 million (between June 2019 – March 2020); Kerala: 1.96 crore (2019), the highest in last 24 years; Agra: 4.4 million (financial year 2020); Varanasi stands at a close second; Rajasthan: 1.6 million (2019); Himachal Pradesh: 3,82,876 (2019); Jammu and Kashmir: 1.39 lakh (2018); Tamil Nadu: 68.7 lakh (last year) and Odisha: 1.15 lakh (2019)
These are places where the volume of traffic is high and the frequency of crimes against unwary or gullible tourists goes up in the same proportion.
Ultimately the Tourist Traffic Police should reflect as far as possible India’s age-old philosophy that guests are to be revered and treated like gods, which in Sanskrit reads as ‘Athithidevo Bhava’