To stop malpractices like overcharging and selling of fake items to tourists, Tourism Department has cracked whip on ‘fraudsters’ found duping visitors visiting Kashmir.
The department has collected Rs 1.84 lakh from offendersduring the first three months of the current year.
An official of the department said amount of fine collectedfrom the offenders gives an understanding to what extent violators are findingit easy in the state to dupe visitors despite stringent laws in place.
The department has fined offenders found selling fakehandicraft items and overcharging against fixed charges of cabs and otherservices.
“Overcharging, deceiving by way of selling fake products.Anyone found overcharging or selling fake products was fined. Besides caseswere also lodged against many people found duping visitors at various places,”Director Tourism Nisar Ahmad Wani told Greater Kashmir.
He said the department has launched proactive action tocheck malpractices.
Last year, the department in a similar action to tightennoose against offenders found overcharging for their services or selling fakehandicraft items under brand name Kashmir had collected fine of Rs 10.11 lakh.While, figures suggest 11 FIRs were also lodged against the offenders.
Besides, the official figures suggest amount of Rs 7.57 lakhwas refunded back to the visitors who were duped of their money in 2018 inJammu and Kashmir.
Within three months of this year, Rs 1.05 has been refundedback to the visitors who were duped of their money by the department.
In order to avoid negative publicity and bad name to state’stourism industry, the department has kept its separate wing, Tourist Police inthe state.