New Delhi - Alarmed over rising sexual offences against
foreigners at its tourist spots, the Indian government has decided to
enhance security measures for tourists, a newspaper reported Monday.
The Federal Tourism Ministry has summoned senior tourism officials
from all states for a meeting in New Delhi on January 24 to discuss
the safety and security arrangements for tourists, the
English-language Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
Over the past few weeks, several foreign tourists were molested or
raped in the states of Goa, Kerala and Maharashtra. While a Finnish
woman reported she was raped in Maharashtra last month, a Briton on
Saturday alleged she was raped in the beach resort state of Goa.
Top federal tourism official S Bannerjee has written to tourism
secretaries of all states regarding such reports and asked them to
deploy special police at popular tourist sites, the report said.
At the January 24 meeting, officials will try to identify various
measures that can be undertaken to provide better protection to
foreign visitors, apart from reviewing the effectiveness of the
existing ones.
In a related development, the Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat
promised that the accused would be arrested soon. 'We are adopting
zero tolerance towards such accused. We are dealing seriously with
such cases,' Kamat told the PTI news agency.
Several countries, including the US, Britain, Australia, Canada
and France, have issued warnings on the law and order situation in
India in travel advisories to their citizens planning to visit the
South Asian country.
They have specifically warned women tourists about the possibility
of physical harassment and molestation in major tourism destinations
including Goa and the Taj city of Agra.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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