JOIN USPaharganj: Trap or haven for tourists?
After a long spell of a crime-free and peaceful existence, Paharganj – the tourist hub of Delhi is back in the news for all the wrong reasons.
A 34-year old French tourist was found dead in a hotel room in Paharganj after a Kashmiri handicrafts dealer with a shop in the area lured her into taking drugs from him, overdosed her, kept her captive in the hotel, repeatedly raped her and then left her to die.
The culprit was later caught from his native town, but the question is that inspite of all the safety measures undertaken by the police and the authorities, could Paharganj still be called a safe haven for tourists?
It is well-known that a lot of backpackers flock to this centrally located part of the City as it has the cheapest accommodation available in Delhi. Depending upon peak or off-season, 5000 - 15000 tourists can be spotted in Paharganj, and why not? With a startling number of 450 big and small hotels and inns here, tourists are spoilt for choice.
Mohan Rai, owner of one such hotel Roma Deluxe informs, “Till a few years back the situation was pretty bad. Tourists would be found dead in their rooms almost daily. Drug-pedalling, eve-teasing, touting and pick-pocketing were common and the police were not able to do much. After the 2005 serial blasts, in which the first blast took place in the main bazaar of Paharganj, the security system was improved vastly.
Earlier, we used to take note of room seekers in registers which could be destroyed at will. Now we are given registers stamped by DCP Licensing and aren’t even allowed to overwrite stay details of tourists.”
“The next batch of changes came just before Commonwealth Games. Roads which hadn’t been paved for decades were suddenly done twice in a month, sewers were covered, cables made underground and streetlights fixed. The fixing of streetlights especially has helped control the problem of chain snatching to a large extent.”
The problem hasn’t gone away though, as we learnt from a few tourists here. Hendrik, a Belgian national, who has been staying in Paharganj for the past few days now, told us, “Thankfully, I have had a pleasant stay here till now but I did hear of an incident with a few tourists in my hotel. They arrived from Agra at 2:30 am, and just when they were alighting from their bus in front of the hotel, someone snatched a cellphone and fled.”
Another tourist Excelicia Brown of England said, “I like Paharganj. The people are warm and helpful but I did face an ugly incident of eve-teasing. Since then, I have started taking special care to walk at an arm’s distance from all the men on the roads.”
When asked about problems like these, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Central district) Devesh Srivastava said, “We know problems exist and we have taken some special measures lately.
We are planning to install CCTV cameras on all important routes and bylanes in Paharganj and Nabi Karim areas which should curb a lot of criminal activities. Police booths have also been set up. These are meant to help tourists. They will distribute guides, maps and directories with important phone numbers. We are sensitising our force to the problems of tourists too.
“Besides, we also hold regular meetings with the Hotel Mahasangh (confederation of hotels) to ensure that tourists do not face any problems. In a hotel-market area like Paharganj problems will persist, but we are trying our level best to keep them under control. After all tourists are our cultural ambassadors in their own land. Can we afford to let them down?”