Police seek information about homestays from Tourism Department
Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Solan, April 4
The local police today sought a list of hotels and homestays from the Tourism Department to ensure that no tourists were staying there in violation of the government orders of March 23.
The development follows a case of four Delhi residents and their five servants found staying at a homestay near Dharampur in violation of the government directions.
Parwanoo DSP Yogesh Rolta said a communication had been sent to the officials of the Tourism Department to provide a list of all such places so as to ascertain that no tourists were staying there after March 23.
Places lying in the proximity of Punjab and Haryana like Kasauli, Shimla, Dalhousie, Kullu, Manali, Rajgarh, etc., are not only hotspots for tourists but could be likely destinations for influential people trying to seek a safe haven in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
The government initiative to curb the spread of Covid pandemic can receive a serious blow from such tourists from Covid-hit states at a time when home-to-home active contact tracing is underway by health workers.
An eco-resort owner at Rajgarh confirmed that a family from Punjab had sought a booking of his entire resort for a month after the government had declared a lockdown. Cases of families travelling uphills to Kasauli and Shimla were also received and tourists were found staying in Manali hotels despite the state government directive to the tourists to vacate them by March 23.
Officials of the tourism department had failed to ensure that all units registered with them had closed down for tourists.
“Amid a slew of duties like maintaining round-the-clock vigil on the roads to ensure abidance of the curfew, the police did check hotels and homestays located at prominent locations but those located at lesser-visited places could have been ignored,” said a police officer.
