Bengaluru: The Bengaluru commissioner of police has directed all those who rent out PG accomodation to follow a few guidelines after the police and BBMP were criticised for doing very little for the security of paying guests in the city. Besides CCTV cameras, they will also have to employ a security guard and maintain a bio-data of their tenants.
The police, all this while, never had any consolidated list of authorised PGs. After the rising number of crimes in the city, they have finally woken up to the situation. Most of those who have PGs in Bengaluru are unauthorised and are conducting business without any licence. Last year, BBMP corporator Ramesh conducted a study where he revealed that the city has over 8,000 paying guests, while PGs with licenses were just 272.
It is learnt that the police have been doing the rounds and serving notices to all the PG owners. They are also informing the PG owners of the rules that need to be followed. Since there have been a number of crimes against paying guests recently, and many criminals used to stay in these PG accommodations, these guidelines have been issued.
The guidelines make it mandatory for the owners to have a trade licence, install CCTV cameras at the entrance, maintain details of the occupants and have at least one security guard at every PG.
About the drive, Alok Kumar (Law and Order) said, “These directions were issued 4-5 months ago and we are ensuring that all the PG owners follow them without fail. However, no deadline has been set as of now. We will follow up and keep track of all the PGs in the city.”
