New Delhi, January 22
The Centre has convened a meeting of state tourism secretaries here on Thursday to chalk out measures to deal with the growing incidents of harassment of women tourists from abroad that have hit the headlines in the past few weeks.
Reports here suggested that since the incidents threaten to rob the sheen of high-profile ‘incredible India’ campaign, the Centre has been left with no other choice but to send out strong signals to the tourists that appropriate measures are being undertaken.
The ministry of tourism has sent out a communication in this regard to all chief secretaries of the state and union territory governments and will also be reviewing tourism projects. The meeting comes at a time when the Centre is looking at further improving the inflow of tourists.
In the letter to the chief secretaries, the ministry has referred to recent media reports of harassment of women tourists and reminded the state governments about the concerns of the Centre on the safety and security of foreign as well as domestic tourists.
Reports also suggested that tourism and culture minister Ambika Soni had taken the issue very seriously. She had sought the meeting following which the letters were sent out. Apparently among the measures to be suggested would be the deployment of tourist police at the places of tourist importance.
The Centre in the past had also suggested it but only 10 states had acted on the recommendation.
Tourism and culture minister had said the incidents of harassment of women tourists had been ‘unfortunate’, but it would be wrong to project India as an unsafe tourist destination.
The horror for foreign tourists appears to be unending. On January 7, a young Russian tourist was allegedly molested by a beach shack owner on Futorda beach in South Goa.
Over the past few weeks, two cases of molestation have been reported from Kerala and two from Rajasthan. In Kerala, two minor girls from Canada were molested by a security guard of a hotel in Kumarakom.
There has been incidents of a British journalist being allegedly raped by the owner of a guest house in Udaipur, while an American tourist was allegedly molested by the priest of a temple in Pushkar.
