Karwar: The district administration will install CCTV cameras at the prominent beaches of Uttara Kannada to ensure safety and security of tourists.

Thousands of tourists visit the beaches in the district. The step aims at protecting them from pickpockets, eve-teasers and other miscreants.

As many as 45 cameras will be installed at strategic points at Rabindranath Tagore beach in Karwar, Om beach in Gokarna and Murdeshwar beach.

Each beach will get 15 CCTV cameras and they will be installed at parking lots, seashores, entrance and the places where tourists keep their belongings before venturing into sea.

About a month ago, a few students of a polytechnic college from Mandya visited Karwar. Some of them allegedly teased a girl. When a local person questioned their action, the students and their lecturers started quarrelling with him. They even pelted stones and vandalized a beach-side hotel, besides assaulting the staff there. Such incidents were also reported at Murdeshwar beach, one of the busiest beaches in the state.

“The misbehaviour of miscreants gives bad image to the tourists places, besides affecting the security. Pickpocket and theft of mobile phones and money of tourists are also rampant on the beaches,” sources said.

To put an end to such problems, the administration had decided to install CCTV cameras on these beaches at a cost of Rs 1.88 lakh under ‘Swadesh Darshan Scheme’. It expects that with the installation of cameras, such cases will come down.

Additional Deputy Commissioner H Prasanna told reports. “We will install cameras on the seashore, parking places, entrance and walking paths on the beaches without causing inconvenience to tourists. We hope such crimes will come down with the introduction of CCTV surveillance. Moreover, more and more tourists can visit these beaches without fearing thieves and eve-teasers."