MARGAO
The South Goa district Collector, Egna Cleetus has directed owners of houses, buildings, flats and other residential accommodations, besides the owners/ management of all hotels, lodging & boarding, shacks, private guest houses, paying guest facilities, religious bodies, offering temporary accommodations, temporarily residential accommodation, etc, in South Goa District to verify the bonafides of persons through their proof of identify such as Election Card, Driving Licence, Aadhaar card, Passport, Smart Card, etc.
Exercising powers under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the district Collector has further directed that no landlords, tenants, owners or person of any house/ property falling under the territorial jurisdiction of South Goa District, shall let, sublet or rent out any accommodation to any person unless the particulars of the tenants have been furnished to the officer-in-charge of the concerned police station.
All heads/ in-charges of Nationalised Banks of South Goa District have been directed to deploy security guards for security of their ATM’s round the clock and install CCTV cameras or shall installed ESS (Electronic Survey System) equipped with panic button hooter, two-way communication system and remote outstanding control.
The directions have been issued in the wake of report submitted by the Superintendent of Police, South Goa District that criminals with an intention of committing crime in Goa, usually stay in hotel/ rented premises with fictitious names and bogus residential/ official addresses and telephone numbers and after commission of crime, it becomes difficult to identify culprits, as the details furnished by them to the hotels or landlords are found fictitious/ bogus/ false.
The police report has stated that anti-social/ criminal or undesirable elements can camouflage their identity for illegal/ immoral operations, which need to be contained and regulated, adding that certain hotel owners/ landlords/ establishment have a tendency to rent out premises without verifying the antecedents of the person/ tenants or informing the police.
The Collector’s order shall come into force with effect from March 9 and shall remain in operation for a period of 60 days (both days inclusive) unless withdrawn earlier. Violation of this order is punishable u/s 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the order stated.
