Lack of tenants database: A recipe for terrorists to blend with residents

GUWAHATI: The City Police have sounded an alert and asked landlords and house owners in Guwahati to give details of people staying as tenants in their houses to their respective police stations. The order also says that any house owner not following this order is punishable under Section 188 of IPC.

This order has been effective from Friday and will continue at least for the next 60 days.

The City Police apprehend that terrorists or antisocial elements may take rooms on rent during the festive season and disrupt peace. In fact, the police have received intelligence reports that terrorists and antisocial elements may seek shelter in residential areas and disrupt public tranquility – posing a threat to human life and public property.

Guwahati's Central Police District DCP Rajbir said, "It's necessary that some checks should be put on landlords/tenants so that terrorists or antisocial elements in the guise of tenants may not cause explosions, riots, shootouts, affrays etc., and that immediate action is necessary for the prevention of the same."

The order further says that before renting out, letting or sub-letting their houses landlords or house owners should submit details of the people to be kept as tenants, to the local police stations.

However, the ground reality is quite different. Seeking tenants' details from house owners is a routine matter. This is in the rule book. From time to time, the police issue this order asking landlords and house owners in the State, especially in urban areas, to give details of people staying in their houses to the police. The irony, however, is that 'neither the landlords or house owners obey the order, nor do the police monitor defiance of the order'. The police don't have any database as to how many house owners have given their rooms on rent, nor do they ever made any attempt to have such a database. A section of house owners gives details of their tenants to their respective police stations. However, the police stations don't have any proper mechanism to maintain such details, say in the form of a database. Such details are seen to lie like waste papers in a section of police stations in Guwahati.

Lack of any database of tenants in Guwahati is a perfect recipe for terrorists and antisocial elements staying in residential areas in the guise of tenants to disrupt peace. There are rickshaw-pullers, e-rickshaw pullers, share taxi drivers and others, including some with doubtful nationalities, staying on rented houses in Guwahati. However, house owners and police stations seem to bother the least about their antecedents.

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