By IANS
Jaipur : The next time you visit Hawa Mahal here and think of scrawling your name on its beautiful walls for posterity – think again. You may be caught on closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras!
Rich in historical monuments, Rajasthan is planning to install CCTVs at some structures here in a bid to discourage people from defacing them.
“The CCTV cameras would be installed in some of the monuments in Jaipur. People who write graffiti and litter in and around the historical buildings would be identified and their names would be made public,” an official of the state archaeology department told IANS.
To begin with, CCTVs will be installed in Jaipur’s Albert Hall Museum, Hawa Mahal, Amber Palace and Jantar Mantar.
There is a legal provision to penalise people who deface monuments but because identification is difficult, these people usually go scot-free. This problem will be solved by the installation of CCTVs, officials said.
They would also try to identify couples loitering in the monuments for hours and then would request them to leave the place. The names of lovebirds caught scrawling on the walls would be made public and messages would also be sent to their parents or guardians.
“Though these steps may seem awkward, they are necessary to protect the monuments,” one official said.
The CCTVs would also help in maintaining security in these monuments.
Rajasthan is one of India’s most popular tourist destinations. The state saw a record arrival of more than 1.2 million foreign tourists and 17 million domestic tourists in the year 2005-06.
The department of tourism has also come up with an advertisement in Hindi and English targeting people who scribble on monuments. It reminds them that monuments attract millions of tourists every year and tourism is a source of livelihood for many.
Rajasthan Tourism Minister Usha Punia said: “Responsible tourism is important to make a destination genuinely tourist-friendly. Social awareness advertisements that the department has decided to release are a step towards making people go out of the way to help tourists and protect the monuments.”