Last week, a couple enjoying the evening at the famous Buddhist tourist spot at Thotlakonda in the city was filmed by five miscreants and about ₹70,000 worth of articles and cash were extorted from them. The couple apparently were in proximity and the miscreants took advantage of it and blackmailed them, posing as policemen and journalists.
Though all the accused were arrested a day later, it brings out a larger issue, as this was the second such incident at the same spot in the recent times. Some time ago there was a similar incident in Yarada Beach, when some mischief makers misbehaved with tourists.
The flow of tourists has been on the rise since last 10 years. In 2015 and 2016, the number of tourist footfalls exceeded 1.2 crore in each year with over 70,000 foreign tourists per year. The city has a number of tourist spots, and some of them like Thotlakonda, Pavuralakonda, Mangamaripeta beach, Yarada Beach and Apikonda beach are located on the outskirts and in remote places and there is no security arrangement of any kind.
That is why we have sent a proposal for the setting up of the tourism police station with police pickets at almost all tourists spots, said the Commissioner of Police T. Yoganand.
The idea was mooted by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in one of the District Collector’s conferences and a project report was sent, but it is yet to become a reality.
No security system
Except for some of the pilgrim spots such as Simhachalam temple and a few public spots such as Kursura Museum, there is hardly any kind of security system in place at the other spots and are vulnerable to illegal activities.
According to a senior police officer, the tourist spots even lack CCTV cover. There is no scope for us to record who are entering the spots and neither there is system to record the registration number of the vehicles. Most of the tourist spots like Thotlakonda or Appikonda are in secluded areas and except for certain festival days the spots are pretty lonely, in such instance, providing security cover is important, so that the visitors feel safe, he said.
The concept of Tourism police station is a tested model and it is already in place in many tourist destinations such as Goa and Chennai and many of the foreign countries.
The complaints of eve teasing at tourists have seen spurt in the recent times and policemen assigned to this police station or police pickets will pay attention to this sort of menace and other things such as bike stunts at tourist places and fleecing by the cabbies, said a senior police officer.
The idea is to make tourists and visitors feel safe and give them a memorable time and the peace and safety should not be hijacked by a few miscreants, said Mr. Yoganand.
