Police issue guidelines to hostels, PG homes

To curb illegal activities within the jurisdiction of the Mangaluru Police Commissionerate, Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil issued guidelines to hostels, paying guest (PG) accommodations and service apartments operating in Mangaluru.

Students and working youth in the city are staying in private hostels and paying guest accommodations.

To ensure the safety of such youth and to check illegal activities, the commissioner has issued a set of guidelines to owners of such accommodation facilities, using the powers under the Karnataka Police Act 1963 Sections 65 and 70.

Sandeep Patil has made it mandatory for owners and partners of accommodations to avail of permissions from the authorities concerned.

‘Provide details’

All the hostel and PG accommodation owners should furnish copies of their identity cards with names, addresses and phone numbers to the jurisdictional police stations. Under the guidelines, the accommodation owners should also submit details of students along with phone numbers and copies of identity cards to the respective police stations. If there are foreign national students staying at the accommodations, the documents should include passports and visa details.

The documents should be submitted within 15 days of admission of the youth in the hostel. Similarly, the information on foreign national students vacating the accommodations should be intimated to the police.

The commissioner said that CCTV cameras should be installed in all the accommodations within 15 days.

Safety first

One of the CCTV cameras should be installed at the entrance, facing the road. The footage of the camera should be made available for viewing in case of emergency. The owners should make suitable arrangement to prevent the entry of outsiders to the accommodations.

They should take measures to check illegal activities and drug consumption at the accommodations.

They should also ensure that programmes that result in noise pollution and other problems are not organised by the students or youth.