To Karimnagar police, policing and tourism promotion are like chalk and cheese. To encourage tourism at the historic and ancient Molangur Fort in Shankarpatnam mandal, the Karimnagar Commissionerate of Police organised a trekking programme at the ancient fort on Sunday to educate people about the history of the fort and its protection.
On Sunday, the police team led by Commissioner of Police V.B. Kamalasan Reddy, District Collector Sarfaraz Ahmad, police and district officials trekked the steep climb to the fort. Rock climbers from Hyderabad also climbed the fort, using ropes in a show of adventure sports. The officials also participated in the plantation of saplings.
Lighting up next
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ahmad said they would take all measures for the development of the historic fort in a phased manner to encourage tourism. He promised provision of lighting from the foothill to the top of the fort and called upon the villagers to take up plantation of fruit-bearing plants on the outskirts of the village to avoid monkey menace.
Mr. Kamalasan Reddy said they organised the trekking programme to highlight the importance of protection of the ancient site.
Promising all assistance for the development of the fort, he said they would further strengthen the iron railings for the easy climbing of the fort. This is an outcome of the idea when a year and a half ago, the police team trekked the fort and identified some issues for its development.
Tourist-safe locations
The bifurcated Karimnagar district has only few tourist spots like LMD reservoir, Elgandal Fort on the outskirts of Karimnagar, Molangur fort in Shankarpatnam mandal and Raikal water falls in Saidapur mandal. The police had ensured that the LMD reservoir had become a major tourist attraction in the district by ensuring complete safety of the visitors.
Earlier, police had cracked a whip against the persons consuming in the open at the LMD reservoir by introducing drone camera operations.
Later, they deployed CCTV cameras on the dam for complete surveillance and also introduced cultural programmes every Sunday evening to encourage tourism.
District forest officer Srinivas, Tourism officer Venkateshwara Rao, ACPs Krupakar, P. Ashok, Shyamsunder and Shobhan Kumar, ZPTC member Sanjeeva Reddy, and sarpanch A. Srinivas were also present.