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{/googleAds} A few days ago, two youngsters were found drinking beer in a hotel room when the raiding party forced open the room, took photographs and caused ‘mental and emotional harassment to them.’ Several harassed tourists are now posting messages on tourism websites criticising the high handedness of the officials.

The state Excise department has ordered that hotel owners will be booked if people staying in the rooms were found consuming liquor. ‘Empty bottles and cans have been taken as proof of liquor consumption to harass hoteliers,’ an office bearer of a tourism body said.

Senior tourism industry leader Rajiv Tiwari told IANS ‘there is in fact a clear cut ruling of the Supreme Court which says that a hotel room is a private place and nobody has a right to intrude the privacy of the guests. Only on search warrants can the room be opened and guests questioned. But the officials are saying that a hotel is a public place including the rooms. The hotel owners are asked to explain the presence of empty bottles. This is too much, enough to kill this sensitive industry. Obviously tourists come for fun and enjoyment and they are free to do what they want in the privacy of their rooms.’

‘Next they might ask us to install CCTV cameras and monitor what goes on inside the rooms,’ suggested hotelier Ravendra Kumar.

The divisional commissioner Pradip Bhatnagar, after a hue and cry was raised, has now ordered immediate stop to raids on these grounds, but the district authorities and the state Excise department refuses to confirm.

The hoteliers are angry. The Agra Hotels and Restaurants Association delegation met the district magistrate and lodged formal protest.

The city has more than 500 small and big hotels. ‘Surprisingly the five star hotels have been spared from this moral cleansing exercise,’ hotelier Sandip Arora informed.

‘Call girls visiting clients in big hotels were seen as value addition and decent company but if guests were suspected or found in questionable company in smaller hotels they were sure to land in dire straits,’ commented a fuming hotelier of Baluganj area (Identity withheld).

The whole world knows Agra as a city of love and romance with the 17th century marble marvel being the chief attraction. ‘A significantly large number of visitors are those on a honeymoon, newly married or just friends in love. How is it possible for a hotelier to keep a check on who is what, and what is the formal relationship? The administration should stop playing the moral police,’ says social activist Shravan Kumar Singh.

The ministers in the Samajwadi Party from Agra, former mayor Ms Anjula Singh Mahaur, Aridaman Singh, Shiv Shankar Rathod, Ram Shakal Gujar, have jointly asked the district authorities to stop harassing the hoteliers, but district magistrate Zuher Bin Sagir, appears determined to weed out black sheep and those indulging in unfair practices. Sagir is not available for comments on commissioner Bhatnagar's directive to stop the.