Report by Viju Mangalore for Daijiworld Media Network, Mangalore
Pics by Rajesh Shetty
Mangalore, Jan 9: Around 110 elderly persons who had been on a pilgrimage to Haj returned to Mangalore with sad faces.
The holy tour proved to me a nightmare. Their major complaint was against the travel agency which promised them a royal treatment, but put them through numerous hardships including bad facilities, no food, disorganized tour which give them bitter experiences.
Minars Haj Tours which took around Rs 1.05 to Rs 1.2 lac per head to Haj had promised them a ‘royal package’ with best hospitality. But all these promises went down the drain throughout the journey.
The pilgrims were from Kerala, Karnataka, Sakleshpur, Kodagu, Shimoga, Bhadravati and several other places and were to land in Bajpe airport on Monday, Jan 8.
“The agency had promised to bring our family members back to Mangalore in a flight from Mumbai, but did not do so. Instead they had them brought to Mangalore on a non-luxury bus, putting them thorough several inconveniences,” complained P U Abbubakar Haji of Uppinangady.
“The travel agency which has a capacity of 70 members have squeezed in 110 members and earned a big share of profits. Not even 25 per cent of the promises made by them have been fulfilled,” he alleged.
The pilgrims were elderly and needed extra care for which they had to shell extra money. But the agency did not given them basic facilities, lamented the pilgrims.
Anxious moments at the Bajpe airport where the family members of the pilgrims had gathered to receive their loved ones on Monday, turned into sheer disappointment and anger. The agency which had communicated to them of their arrival on Monday was found silent. There was flight landing in Bajpe from Mumbai on Monday!
On Tuesday however, the annoyed and anxious family members waited at Pumpwell for their loved ones who were being brought from Mumbai in an ordinary bus.
K A Abbas of Sakleshpur who took the issue to the MLA told Daijiworld that pressure will be laid on the government to initiate probe into the functioning of Minars Haj Tours and their license to be cancelled for duping people.
For these 110 Muslims, the holy tour, which is a life-time dream of every Muslim, became a nightmare.