Bhubaneswar police launches mobile app to monitor hotel guests

BHUBANESWAR: The commissionerate police on Monday launched SARAI, a mobile application, to receive information from hotels in Bhubaneswar about their guests.
The move is aimed at keeping tabs on the stay of suspicious persons, mostly anti-socials in hotels.
Until now, the hotels were manually sending the check-in and check-out details of their guests, including foreign tourists with the local police stations. Police said negligence by some hotels had encouraged criminals to commit offences in the past.
The concern of the police assumed significance as two interstate criminals stayed in two hotels in Patia area here and robbed Rs 27 lakh from an ATM on October 10 last year.
During their stay in one of the hotels, the accused brought a gas cylinder to their room. Using a gas cutter, the accused robbed the ATM.
Commissioner of police Saumendra Priyadarshi appealed to all hoteliers to make use of the SARAI app.
“We urge the hotels, lodges and commercial guest houses to provide information about their guests through the mobile app or its web version. We respect the privacy of the guests. The data will be kept confidential and not be shared with anyone,” Priyadarshi said.
Deputy commissioner of police Uma Shankar Dash said the app will prevent intrusive police action on hotels for guest verification. Dash said already more than 100 hotels of Bhubaneswar have been enrolled in the App. A training programme was also conducted on Monday where the hoteliers were briefed about the advantages of the App.
“We aim to include around 800 hotels and lodges of Bhubaneswar in the App,” Dash said.
Police said all hotels should be registered under the Sarais Act 1867. As per the Sarais Act, the hotels are a place of tourism importance and need to submit a copy of the trade licence to the district administration (police commissioner in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack) as a proof of their work.