Waking up to the increasing instances of crime against foreign tourists, particularly women, in others parts of the country, the Orissa government has decided to increase police presence at tourist destinations with the help of tourism department.

Chief Secretary Mr Ajit Tripathy held a meeting with senior bureaucrats and police officers here today to device ways of improving the security set up in tourist destinations of Khurda, Puri, Ganjam and Balasore districts.

The tourism department has been asked to propose ways of working together with the police in this regard. The police will also give specific proposals regarding additional infrastructure and manpower requirement.

The objective is to provide a sense of security and safety to the tourists when they travel to Puri or other destinations in the state, said official sources here. A proposal relating to security in tourist hotspots had earlier been worked out in 2005 envisaging an investment of Rs 2.7 crore. It got stuck due to financial constraints.

As an immediate measure the government intends to include a few tourist areas in the proposed 100 new police stations that are to be established. Initially these new police stations were planned as energy and marine police stations. Now some of them will be at tourists spots, said reliable sources.

Police patrolling along the marine drive between Konark to Puri will be stepped up. Tourist assistance booths manned by the tourism department will also have a policeman posted to listen to grievances of tourists.
The Puri Temple outpost will be upgraded to a police station and at least 200 additional policemen will be deployed in Puri town.

It may be noted here that a few ghastly instances of crime against women have recently occurred in tourists spots along the Puri-Konark belt.