The need for having a few exclusive tourism police stations has arised now in Visakhapatnam as the city is growing into a potential travel and leisure destination ; so has also been witnessing a steady rise in tourist footfalls.
Visakhapatnam, besides being a tourist hub With sprawling attractive beaches, ancient temples, beautiful caves and splendid valleys, is also a port city and industrial center in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, on the Bay of Bengal. This beautiful sourthen city of India is superabundant with tourists from all across the world every year, as it is well connected by rail, road, air and sea – thus is easily reachable. This particular factor again surfaces the necessity of an agency to safeguard its tourists form any sort of extraterritorial nuisances.
In 2017, the then State Government, led by the Telugu Desam Party, proposed the need for tourism police stations in the city on the basis of a report submitted by then Commissioner of Police T. Yoganand.
The proposal was also accepted at the District Collectors’ conference, but with time it was never materialized and was kept on the backseat.
Housing a number of strategic installations and major public sector undertakings and also being the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command (ENC), Visakhapatnam is considered as the financial capital of Andha Pradesh as well. So to receive guests other than a clear purpose of tourism is quite an obvious thing. On this, Srinivasa Rao, ADCP (Speial Branch) said, “Apart from tourists, we receive a number of delegates from across the country and abroad, as a number of conferences and seminars are held here all through the year.”
In 2015 and 2016, the number of tourist footfalls in Visakhapatnam exceeded 1.2 crore with over 70,000 foreigners. In 2017, the domestic tourist footfalls was over 2.05 crore while the number of foreign visitors was 1.04 lakh. In 2018, the figures stood at about 1.97 crore (domestic) and 57,000 (foreigners), while in this year the domestic tourist footfall has already surpassed the 1.35 crore mark and about 50,000 foreigners have visited the city so far.
This definitely is a good thing for the city’s economy, but on the otherside some odd issues that are faced by its visitors cannot be avoidable at the same time. As a senior officer revealed, “There were many incidents when tourists have faced problems, be it from eve-teasers or bag and mobile phone snatchers. At times, the tourists lodge a complaint, but in most cases, they avoid doing it as it involves time and hassle. If we have police stations dedicated for tourists, things would be easier.”
Likewise, a senior manager of a hotel pointed out that tourists not only face eve-teasing and harassment but are also robbed by auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers.
Considering all these, the city police suggested the formation of tourism police stations in accordance with the model set out at Goa, in order to cater to the needs of the tourists.
The city police, which is deficient with staffs now, for an immediate resolve of the matter, has decided to launch special teams to tackle the issue.
According to Police Commissioner, Rajeev Kumar Meena, “The tourism police station is still pending and a decision is yet to be taken on the issue. But for the time being, we are planning to launch special teams at tourist spots.”
Mr. Meena said that the teams would be equipped with the latest communication systems and will be put on patrolling duty at all prominent tourist spots.
Here it should be noted that the role of the tourism police would not only be limited to accepting complaints but would also include ensuring security of tourists and seeing that they have a hassle-free trip.
