The police have registered cases against several hoteliers, home-stay and houseboat owners in Kashmir for failing to report the stay of foreign tourists.
Hoteliers, however, say that the police portal for updating the list of foreign tourists doesn’t work most of the time, and it is difficult for them to visit the
Foreign Registration Office every time a tourist checks in. The measures follow the detention of a Chinese tourist and some other foreign nationals for overstaying their visa period in Kashmir.
A drive to register police cases against hoteliers and owners of houseboats and home stays in Kashmir for failing to report the stay of foreign nationals has left them anxious, who have blamed poor awareness and glitches in the government portal for their inability to keep authorities updated.
Police have registered several cases in Srinagar, with officials saying that the cops initiated action for failure to furnish the list of foreign nationals. At the same time, those associated with the tourism business have stated that the authorities also had access to the foreigners' list both through the Ministry of External Affairs and at the Srinagar airport. As per the guidelines of the Jammu and Kashmir police, Pakistani nationals would have to register with the Foreigners Registration Office, which is the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police of the Criminal Investigation Department in Jammu and Srinagar, within 24 hours, while the nationals of other countries have to do so within 14 days.
On Monday, police booked several hotel and houseboat owners across Srinagar city, including Rajbagh, Khanyar, and Nishat. Police took action against some hotels, as well as those running houseboats and home stays, for violating the Immigration and Foreigners Act, as the owners did not comply with the norms for submitting Form-C details while accommodating foreign nationals. The action came after the detention of a Chinese tourist and some other foreign nationals in the past few weeks for overstaying their visa period in Kashmir.
A police spokesperson said that during routine checking, it was found that owners had violated the Immigration and Foreigners Act by allowing foreign nationals to check in without submitting Form C to the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO). “Srinagar Police reiterates that all hotels, guest houses, houseboats and homestay operators must strictly comply with form-C submission norms when accommodating foreign nationals. Non-compliance with the same is a serious offence and will invite strict legal action. Srinagar Police remains committed to protecting its citizens from activities prejudicial to peace and public order,” police said.
S D Chaudhry, Deputy Director Enforcement, Tourism department, says they had an earlier meeting with the hoteliers, who were apprised to file the details of tourists staying at their properties with the police and the tourism department. “There is a need to submit form-C documents, and we informed hotels as well as those running home stays about this requirement.”
Jahanzeeb Ahmad, Housekeeping Supervisor of Hotel Golden Forest, which is among the hotels which have figured in the list of those against whom cases have been registered, says that they have faced the case even after manually providing the concerned authorities with the list of a group of tourists from South Korea who stayed at the hotel in August. “A group of tourists from South Korea, which included children in the age group of 6 to 8 years who were on a sports trip to Kashmir, had stayed at the hotel in August. We provided the list to the FRO official who visited our hotel, but we have been told that an action has been initiated against us for failing to upload the list online. However, we have started uploading the list with the online portal only in August, after the South Korean group checked out of the hotel,” he says. “The authorities have the list of foreign tourists who visit Kashmir, and the records are maintained both at the level of the Ministry of External Affairs and at the Srinagar airport.”
A staffer at the Hotel Blossoms, another hotel which faces a police case, says that they were unable to access the portal through the user ID and the password which has been generated by them, due to which most of the time they are unable to upload the details of the tourists who stay at the hotel.
“A group of South Korean tourists was booked at the hotel for a day on August 11, and it was in September that officials from CID visited the hotel and enquired about them and informed us that the documents for the bookings of the South Korean group had not been received by them. We are looking at challenging the FIR, but have not received any notice from the court as of now,” added the staffer.
Another hotelier, who wishes to remain anonymous, says, “We should have been properly informed before the police registered the FIR, as at times it could be negligence of any of the staff members due to which the foreign list doesn’t get updated.”
Tracking tourist arrivals in Kashmir appears to be a hectic task for the police, as, besides over 4,000 hotels, there are more than 2,300 home-stay facilities with a bed capacity estimated at over 16,000. The foreign tourist arrivals in 2024 alone were over 65,000 in Jammu and Kashmir, while the numbers were 54,000 in 2023 and 27,000 in 2023.
Mehboob Mir, secretary general of the Kashmir Hotels and Restaurant Association (KHARA), however, says that the hoteliers are complying with the norms by furnishing the police with details of the stay of foreign nationals at their properties. He notes that they have been asked by the authorities to submit the guest list details on an online portal, but at times the site does not work, which makes it difficult for them to maintain the record with the police.
“We have had meetings earlier with the police, and the issue was brought to their notice, and we were informed that we should manually furnish the list of foreign nationals to the police at their office when the site was not working. We have also made the small hoteliers aware of the need to fulfil this mandatory requirement, which is important for security and peace in the region,” he adds.
