Tour operators guilty of cheating: Haj pilgrims

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Dec 9: A group of 43 Haj pilgrims who returned to Mangalore on Dec 8, Tuesday are furious about the behavior of their private tour operators Al Harmaini Tours and Travels, which has its head office in Kasargod and a branch office in Mangalore. The angry pilgrims and their families have accused the tour operators of failing to make the required arrangements and of putting them to a lot of inconvenience. Allegedly, the private tour operators have cheated the Haj pilgrims and their families of a large sum of money. 

The Al-Harmaini Tours and Travels had agreed to arrange the entire pilgrimage for a sum of Rs. 1, 85,000, which included flight expenses. However, the operators collected an additional sum of Rs. 35,000 from the pilgrims. This means that a total of Rs. 2, 20,000 per individual was collected.  

 

Moreover, the private tour operators failed to make the required flight arrangements from Mumbai to Mangalore, forcing the pilgrims to take a bus, which delayed their arrival in Mangalore by 48 hours. 

According to reports given by various disgruntled Haj pilgrims, the tour operators had demanded a sum of Rs. 25,000 for purchasing flight tickets from Jeddah to Mumbai. During the tour, an additional amount of Rs. 10,000 was collected to meet various expenses. Since the pilgrims had no money on them, they had call home and request their family members to arrange the money for them. Moreover, the partners of the tour operating company were not available for a telephonic conversation. 

The Haj pilgrims claim that there is no proper communication between the branch office in Mangalore and its head office in Kasargod. The officers concerned are now busy blaming each other for causing inconvenience to the pilgrims. But pilgrims believe that the blame game now being played is part of a larger cheating game. 

Angry pilgrims have demanded that strict action must be taken against the tour operators for demanding extra money. They also demanded that the operators should return all the additional money they have collected from the pilgrims.