PG ratings help you live safe

New Delhi: If the Ministry of Tourism has its way, finding a paying guest accommodation in Delhi will soon become easier.

The Ministry is planning to provide star ratings to the various paying guest accommodations in the national capital to check on their credentials.

It is asking the guesthouses to send in applications for accreditation. The database created will be listed on Incredible India, the Ministry of Tourism's website.

But those applying for the accreditation would need to conform to certain standards. "They will need to have an uncongested location, bed and breakfast, running water.etc. I think they are trying to do three different ratings like silver, gold and diamond like one star, four star or five star accommodation,? Shyam Suri of Fedration of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India said.

The room rates will be decided by a simple demand and supply function. The government is even planning to exempt paying guest accomodation from the luxury tax net, to promote the scheme.

The proposal has been made to ensure better safety and security to those staying in the rented accomodations, especially women.

Delhi is home to a number of students and professionals who come to the city to pursue further studies and jobs and stay in rented or PG homes.

They include a considerable number of young women, both students and working professionals. The students manage to stay in college hostels but face problems when the hostel closes for the season.

"While shifting over to a PG accomodation, I was damn apprehensive, even my dad wasn't willing to send me here,? Tanishtha Chakravorty, a student from Kolkata studying in Delhi, said.

Tanishtha and her friend Ipshita Nandi, who migrated from Kolkata to pursue further studies, initially stayed in the college hostel, but when the hostel closed down, shifting to a paying guest accomodation was not an option they wanted to consider.

"It should be a place where more and more families live, more the people, safer it is. The whole idea of PG accomodation was not comfortable,? Ipshita Nandi said.

Newspapers and internet provide the details for dozens of guest houses in and around Delhi. But it is impossible to check on their credentials.

The Tourism Ministry's proposal to accredit guest houses could come as help to those looking for safer and better places to stay.