Key Highlights • Despite rising number of foreign tourists visiting India, Agra's Taj has seen a major dip.

• The number of visitors to Taj Mahal from abroad has gone down by a substantial 8.4%.

• Rising crime graph and deteriorating infrastructure are being attributed as the reason behind this.

AGRA: There has not been much change at the Taj Mahal despite chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s strict instruction recently to clamp down hard on touts, illegal photographers and guides swamping the monument.

Numerous cases of harassment of tourists continue to hurt the reputation of the city. Touts, though -- called 'lapkas' here -- remain unfazed, freely doing business in and around the structure. What's more, a large number of children are involved in the business.

Taking cognizance of a TOI story on harassment faced by a British couple in Agra last year, the CM had in September 2015 directed officials to ensure "security, dignity and adequate facilities" to all tourists visiting the state. Akhilesh had said that anyone found guilty of misbehaving with the tourists would not be spared. He had directed the local administration and tourism officials to identify all such anti-social elements and take strict action against them. He had further asked the officials to ensure that such incident of ill-treatment of tourists, as in the British couple's case, was not repeated.

Nothing much has come of it though and things have remained the same. On Saturday, hawkers and photographers were seen doing their business as usual without any check. ASI officials allege that a hawker-policemen cartel is the primary reason for nothing being done on the issue. They claim that hawkers pay and a fixed amount of Rs 100-200 to cops on a daily basis to the cops and that does the trick.

According to an estimate, around 3,000 photographers and lapkas operate in and around the Taj Mahal. On top of this, there are scores of vendors who sell souvenirs and edibles in the monument’s vicinity. Visitors, especially foreigners, remain their prime target. Harassment and even abuse, many say, is rampant. When contacted, circle officer (Taj security) Avnish Yadav said, “Several measures have been taken to control the movement of touts in the vicinity of the monument. We are identifying kingpins of all the illegal activities and also taking action against them. Due to elections and other reasons, the drive against them had slowed down in the past, but we will once again intensify our efforts to end this.”