Police stations have been asked to check on all establishments and inform municipal authorities for their proper registration.
| Photo Credit: KUMAR SS
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 businesses 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 officers, 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.
Security protocols
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.
Superintendent of Police, East, Swati Singh in a meeting she had with owners of the hotel industry on Friday, November 10, 2023 directed them to increase the presence of their own security staff to monitor people visiting their centres.
“We have asked the hotels to deploy hotel security guards on the ground floors. The access points should be reduced to a minimum of two to three and entry and exit areas should be linked to Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Cameras. We have also emphasised the need for baggage scanners in hotels,” she said.
The identity of guests should be established with a copy of any government-approved Identity card at the time of booking. The hotels should submit a copy of the guest list to the concerned police station. They should also, without fail submit details of foreigners staying at the hotel to the Foreigners Registration Office in Puducherry, the SP said.
The hotels will have to place CCTV cameras in public areas of the hotel premises, she said. Any suspicious movement or activity should be reported at the local police station or to 112, she said.