Shimla: Taking suo motu cognizance of tourists, mainly from Punjab, for creating a ruckus at Manikaran in Kullu district and elsewhere, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Friday directed the state government to file a status report and listed the case for the next hearing on March 13.
The court also issued notice to the Chief Secretary, the Principal Secretary (Home), the Director General of Police and the Deputy Commissioners Kullu and Bilaspur, among others, for the ruckus created by the tourists at Manali, Manikaran and Bilaspur.
A Division Bench of acting Chief Justice Sabina and Justice Satyen Vaidya passed the order on a writ petition taken up suo-motu as public interest litigation on the basis of media reports.
As per the news published on March 6, it had been reported that the tourists from Punjab created a ruckus at Manali’s Green Tax Barrier on March 5. The tourists got engaged in a fight with the workers for not paying the green tax.
On March 7, another news report that tourists from Punjab also went on a rampage in Manikaran. A riot-like situation was witnessed in Manikaran on the night of March 6 as miscreants from Punjab created a ruckus and rampaged through the town.
Some miscreants also hurled bottles towards the Naina Mata temple and on the road. After local residents intervened, the miscreants went on a rampage and vandalised temples, houses and 20 vehicles with iron rods and sticks.
The tourists thrashed everyone they saw on the way and created an atmosphere of panic. On being countered by a local boy, they hit him on the head with a beer bottle and also assaulted him with a rod. They entered an eatery forcibly and misbehaved with those present there.
It was also reported that an FIR has been registered by the police against miscreants.
Another news published on March 7 reported that after the incident at Manikaran, tourists from Punjab gathered in hundreds and created a ruckus at Garamora in Bilaspur district. The bike riders going to and returning from Manikaran gathered at Garamora, a gateway to Himachal Pradesh, on the Chandigarh-Manali National Highway, and kept the highway closed for about one and a half hours.
