KATHMANDU, Nepal–Tourist Police in Nepal has been receiving scores of complaints and grievances. Majority of complaints are concerned with loss of belongings and theft, from tourists visiting the country.
As per the data of tourist Police Unit at Bhrikutimandap, a total of 984 complaints were registered by tourists throughout the country in the fiscal year 2013-14 against 783 complaints reported in 2012-13 and 664 in 2011-12.
Officials at the tourist office told 70 complaints, on an average, are registered with Tourist Police every month. Of them, around 88 per cent are related to loss of belongings and theft.
Of the total complaints registered in 2013-14, cases of lost or missing property were 500 followed by 300 cases of theft, 42 of fraud/cheating, 17 of robbery, 25 of pick pocketing and nine cases of sexual harassment, among others.
Likewise, stolen passports, camera, mobile phones and iPhone among others, are frequent complaints registered at the office.
According to the data unveiled by the office large numbers of complaints were registered from mid-November to mid-December.
Likewise, most of the cases are found to have occurred at Thamel, Basantapur, Bhaktapur of the Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara.
A special unit of law enforcement agency, which was set up in 1979 as Mobile Tourist Police in Kathmandu is supporting foreign tourists during their travel and stay in Nepal. The unit has been working under the Tourism Industry Division of Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.