“I advise people of the state not to deposit any money with any travel agency till the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) clears the names of those agencies authorised to conduct the pilgrimage this year,” SHC Executive Officer (EO) Fayaz Ahmad Lone said.
He said the license to any travel agency is provided only for one year.
Every year the license is granted afresh, he said adding therefore if any agency, who was authorised to organise the pilgrimage last year, will claim he has license for this year also is not based on facts.
Now, he said, the EAM and Central Hajj Committee (CHC) has approached the Supreme Court of the country to approve fresh the guidelines for the travel agencies, organsing Hajj pilgrimage.
Mr Lone said till date the travel agency was given license for one year only. The Supreme court has been requested that the license be approved for five years instead of one, Mr Lone said.
He said till the court approves the fresh guidelines, including increasing the license from one year to five years, the Centre cannot approve any travel agency for undertaking the pilgrimage.
Mr Lone said so far no travel agency is approved. However, he said once the names of travel agencies will be approved after the Supreme Court directions, the list will be circulated to all states.
“We will also publish the list of approved agencies in local media before put their names on Hajj committee website,” he said. However, he said, after the approval of travel agencies, people can deposit the money for undertaking the 2013 pilgrimage.
The clarification from Mr Lone came as for the past few years, hundreds of people deposited their money with travel agencies who later duped them. Police have registered cases against these travel agencies and in some cases arrested the owners of the agencies, who have yet to return the money to depositors.
(UNI)
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