Proactively dealing with problem of tourism touts: Police

A campaign to deal with the problem of touts harassing tourists in the city has seen police take proactive steps which have led to action being taken against scores of such illegal operators, a senior official here said.
City police started 'Operation Welcome' in March to check the growing menace of 'lapkas', or touts, with action so far having been taken against 100 such persons for harassing and cheating tourists.
Police have also seized 50 vehicles belonging to touts, SP Pankaj Kumar Choudhary told PTI.
He said that touts were arrested for misbehaving with and forcing tourists to make purchases at certain shops and hire services of select persons.

"A network of lapkas was active in the city... They would chase and force tourist vehicles to stop midway around Pokran (before entering the city) and insist that the tourist groups check in at particular hotels only," he said.
"We do get complaints from tourists, but it is mostly the police teams which proactively took action in these cases," Choudhary added.

He said that since lapkas also entered trains to swindle tourists, the cooperation of the Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force, too, had been sought as part of the drive.
A representative of Jaisalmer hotels' association, meanwhile, said that the campaign had created a safer environment for tourists in the city.

Jaisalmer, situated near the Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan, is frequented by almost five lakh tourists, both domestic and foreign, in a year.