Harassment of tourists to be an offence in UP soon

The Akhilesh government is planning to bring a legislation that will make harassment of tourists a punishable offence.

It has been seen that tourists, particularly foreign tourists, are heckled and harassed by tourist guides, beggars, photographers, shopkeepers and auto drivers in and around places of tourist interest.

According to principal secretary tourism, Navneet Sehgal, “In the new tourist policy, the state government is planning to check harassment of tourists by the local people by bringing a new legislation. It has been found that tourists are hounded by local people who could be auto drivers, photographers and shopkeepers near the place of tourist interests. This often leads to clashes with tourists and even among themselves.”

The official said that such kinds of incident have an adverse impact on the brand image of Uttar Pradesh and also work as a deterrent for tourists.

According to reports, tourists often get hounded form the airport or railway station when they arrive at a tourist destination.

Taxi drivers, hotel owners literally fall over each other to “grab” the customer and this unnerves women tourists.

“Foreign tourists, in particular, are not used to such behaviour and get upset about it. We have received feedback about this and are work towards solving the problem,” the official said.

Guidelines are being prepared for these service providers and they will be given licences to operate in the region. In case of any violation, the licences will be cancelled.

The government, however, will consult representatives of various trades before finalising the guidelines.

The state government is planning to upgrade government guest houses, dak bungalows and departmental guest house so that they can be let out to tourists when there is sufficient occupancy available. Safety and cleanliness will be major factors in these guest houses.

Meanwhile, the new tourism policy also plans to develop a “Freedom Struggle Circuit” which will include Allahabad, Meerut, Etawah, Ballia, Gorakhpur and Lucknow.

“The idea is to give tourists an idea of places and people that played a crucial role in the freedom movement — from the First War of Independence in 1857 to 1947 when the country finally got its Independence. Guides will be specially trained so that they can give a correct account of historical facts related to a particular place,” said an official working on the project.