Puducherry police to begin streamlining the functioning of hotels, guest houses, home stays
The Hindu
Puducherry Police step in to streamline hotels, guest houses, and home stays. Credible inputs of unregistered tourist ventures led to written directions to police stations to check and inform municipal authorities. Registration of lodging facilities is important for data base of tourists. Hotels must register with IVFRT portal, follow security protocols, and alert police of suspicious activity.
The Puducherry Police have stepped in to streamline the functioning of hotels, guest houses, and home stays in the Union Territory, following reports about the mushrooming of these business to accommodate tourists, in the town, in coastal hamlets and in suburban areas.
Following “credible” inputs of unauthorised/unregistered hotels, lodges and home stays coming up in Puducherry, Senior Superintendent of Police, Law and Order, Narra Chaitanya, issued written directions to sub-divisional police stations, twice last month, emphasising the need to keep a check on such unregistered tourist businesses.
Mr. Chaitanya told The Hindu: “We have credible inputs of functioning of large number of hotels, guest houses and home stays without any approval. The police stations have been asked to check on such establishments and inform municipal authorities for their proper registration. Registration of lodging facilities is very important in a tourist destination such as Puducherry [for safety reasons].”
The police have also asked hotels functioning with proper approvals to get themselves registered with the Immigration, Visa, Foreigners Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) portal for better monitoring of foreign tourists visiting the territory. “It is a mandatory procedure for all types of accommodation facilties to get registered with the IVFRT. We have found several of the lodging facilities out of the purview of the portal. We have started briefing the owners of hotels about the registration process,” he added.
The SSP said the police would initiate a continuous process to ensure all hotels are registered. “We will take appropriate action against those not getting registered even after warnings,” he added.
Besides making the registration of hotels mandatory with municipal authorities and the IVRFT portal, the police have started putting in place certain security protocols to be followed by hoteliers while accommodating guests.
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