Contrary to claims that an application for classifying the Good Shepherd Home stay in Fort Kochi was pending with the Tourism Department, an investigation has now revealed that the authorities had rejected the said application nearly two months ago.
“The application was rejected on December 3 last year after an inspection committee by the District Tourism Promotion Council, which had visited the home stay found that its facilities did not conform to the stipulated standards’’, S. Suhas, Fort Kochi sub-collector and DTPC secretary told The Hindu.
A preliminary investigation by the official has revealed that nearly 100 home stays are operating in and around Fort Kochi by violating the norms. “We may not be even able to identify many of these as they look like any other normal house in the region though the owners and operators will be different. In many a cases, the houses have been sub-leased for running the facility and they canvas guests in a very personal way while no boards have been placed on its premises to indicate their existence’’, the official explained. With a view to intensifying the drive against unauthorised home stays, the official has now handed over a list of 98 `classified’ home stays operating in the region to the Fort Kochi police and issued a direction to conduct random checks on the remaining ones. “They have been given a week’s time to get license from the Tourism Department. A meeting of the stakeholder agencies is scheduled to be convened on Friday and a drive against illegal home stays is slated to begin from Monday onwards’’, he added.
Sent to custody
Meanwhile, the judicial first class magistrate court Mattanchery on Wednesday sent the six accused in Fort Kochi rape case to police custody for three days. During the period, the accused will appear for an identification parade for the woman, who was raped and looted by them at the Good Shepherd Home stay in November last. The police have already recorded her statement.
Similarly, the police have also recorded statement of the college girl, gang raped by one of the accused in the first case along with two 17-year olds. The juvenile accused have been asked to appear before the Juvenile Justice Board on January 30. As the minors were already granted bail, the police are allowed to interrogate them with prior permission of the board.
