‘Tourist Police should be decentralized to touristy areas in future’ - Minister

Speaking at a press conference Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs Minister John Amaratunga said that it is the responsibility of the Government to ensure the safety of tourists who visit Sri Lanka. “It is the primary objective of the Government and it has dedicated that duty to the Ministry of Tourism to ensure that all tourists who come to Sri Lanka are safe. We have to depend mainly on the tourist department when there’s an incident of this nature in order to take prompt action and take those people into custody, produce them in courts and have them remanded.

If the Police are seen in Mirissa and other problematic areas then people would not attempt to engage in such notorious acts

If the Police are seen in Mirissa and other problematic areas then people would not attempt to engage in such notorious acts. There must be adequate personnel who could be deployed from Police stations to ensure that tourists are safe. The Tourist Police should be decentralized to those touristy areas to control these incidents. I’m grateful to the Police since they have arrested six suspects and now they have to be identified.

The Government of Sri Lanka is very much dependent on the tourist industry, so I kindly request the SLTDA to make a prolonged recommendation of how we should minimize such incidents from reoccurring. The Police department should also take appropriate action against those culprits,” the minister said.