As per rules, house owners wishing to offer their premises on rent are required to register the bio-data of tenants to the nearest police station. Although some do oblige to this requirement by filling up the necessary police verification forms, there will be many house owners who overlook this important matter. As a matter of fact, such details (more so in cases where premises are rented to migrant labourers coming from neighboring states) help in conducting necessary investigation in case of any robbery or crime takes place sooner or later. Personal details of labourers submitted at the police station help in apprehending the culprits within no time. Apart from major cities and towns, situation in this regard would certainly be worse in rural areas.
Many house owners remain illiterate and are unaware of the formalities they have to follow while renting their room to outsiders. Providing such details would not only be safe for the house owners but also for the precious lives of local population. In fact, elected representatives at the local Village Panchayats should awaken such house owners in this regard. But in reality, this doesn’t happen at all.
At the villages of Adpai, Durbhat and Agapur in Ponda, many locals have rented rooms to migrant labourers. One doubts whether their personal details are registered either at the local VP or at the Ponda Police Station. In most cases, they have neither been provided with a bathroom or a toilet. Hence many occupants staying in rented rooms are noticed bathing along the roadside. In the absence of toilet, they answer nature’s call in open areas thereby creating unhygienic conditions to one and all. Recently CM Manohar Parrikar has stated that henceforth strict implementation of police verification would be made and house owners would have to follow necessary procedure compulsorily before granting their premises on rent. Accordingly, a new law would be enacted wherein necessary provision for a toilet and a bathroom would have to be made compulsorily.
House owners overlooking this obligation for the first time would be fined Rs 2,500, second time Rs 10,000 and for the third time it would be imprisonment. Indeed, this is an appropriate step which would make house owners more responsible and accountable. The concerned authorities should implement this drive strictly and initiate stringent action against those who fail to register details of their tenants to the police station/ local VP.
