Foreigners in Agra can dial 100, summon a cop

AGRA: For all the harried foreign tourists, with their litany of complaints against cheating touts, hoteliers and taxi drivers as they go to see the Taj Mahal, here’s some good news. Foreign tourists need no longer visit police stations in case of an accident or some untoward incident.
A new rule for foreign tourists that was introduced on Saturday says that once they complain at the control room number, dialing 100, the cops themselves will come to the victims, whether it is on the road or their hotel room, to take details on the spot and address their grievance.
The new rule comes in the wake of lax police response in a case reported on Friday in which jewellery worth rupees several lakhs was stolen from the cab of a foreign tourist from outside a hotel on Fatehabad Road.
On Saturday, senior superintendent of police Rajesh Modak Dinesh Rao suspended the two constables patrolling the area where the accident took place. The constables were charged with taking the matter casually and not reaching spot on time.
The victim, Di-Micelle from California, had claimed she had to run from pillar to post to get a theft complaint lodged.
The SSP clarified that foreign tourists, under the new rule, will be provided full assistance in lodging the complaint besides cops helping them contact their families in case they lost their luggage or cash.
More importantly, only one police official will contact tourists as they get nervous with several cops asking them similar questions, the SSP added.
“Agra is a tourist hub. Thousands of foreign tourists come here every day. This is the responsibility of police to assure smooth journey of tourists in the city. In case of local people, they are aware of rules and language, but in case of foreigners, they get doubly nervous — first with accidents and later with the questions asked by policemen,” SSP Rao said.
The SSP said though the new rule is meant to make foreign tourists at ease, the police are liable to help local tourists in a similar way. The police will contact hotel-owners, travel agencies and guides to advertise this rule so that maximum number of tourists get benefitted, he added.
The senior police official also announced a new scheme, ‘yellow slip’, to be launched on the New Year day. Under this, all complainants will be given a yellow slip, containing details of the complaint as well as address and phone number of the complainant, when they visit a police station.
“The yellow slip will act as the receiving of your complaint. If the victim feels that his/her case is being overlooked or the process is being delayed, they can contact senior officials with the yellow slip. The police official who will issue the slip will be accountable for all further processing in the case as well,” the SSP said.