To keep tourists safe, state to mark no selfie zones
IN AUGUST, TOURISM MINISTRY ASKED ALL STATES TO IDENTIFY SPOTS VULNERABLE TO SELFIERELATED ACCIDENTS
a new lease of life to the school.
Ahmad said Dudi’s contributions have also helped the number of children at the school jump from last year’s 151 to 328 this year.
District collector Pradeep Kumar Borad said he was impressed with Dudi’s efforts. “I interacted with the kids and found their standard relatively high,” he said.
One of the initiatives Dudi — an English teacher — has brought in is to ensure that the morning prayers and news-reading sessions in his school are conducted alternately in English and Hindi. He also takes 4-hour English classes every Sunday, in which a few children from private schools also come.
And Dudi is not afraid of dipping into his own pocket to encourage his students —three of the Class 10 toppers in the school are girls from BPL families, and were ranked second, third and fourth respectively in the district. Delighted, he gifted Javitri, who scored 92%, a scooty with his own money. JAIPUR: Several tourist spots in Rajasthan will soon have notices proclaiming them to be ‘no selfie zones’ to prevent accidents. According to tourism department officials in several districts, the process to start identifying such places has already started, with some such notices already in place.
In August, the Union tourism ministry had issued an advisory to all states, asking them to identify tourist spots where the probability of such accidents was high. The ministry had also urged states and union territories to install signs warning visitors of the danger involved while taking selfies and asked them to barricade areas where such accidents are likely to happen.
“We have identified places in the Chittorgarh Fort as no selfie zones. Many structures in the fort don’t have railings and tourists can lose their balance and injure themselves if all their concentration is on taking the photo,” said Chittorgarh tourist officer BL Teli.
He added that no selfie boards will also be installed in those areas of the fort where monkeys often cause inconvenience to tourists. “Monkeys are a problem near the Rampol Gate in the fort, and the board will remind tourists that they shouldn’t lose their focus,” said Teli.
Jhunjhunu is another district in the state which has already identified places to be marked no selfie zones. “We have chosen the Khetri region as one such place because it is a mountainous region where tourists are at a risk of falling,” Jhunjhunu assistant director of tourism Bharti Natani said.
According to reports, India accounted half of the total selfie related deaths in last year.