Haj and Umrah Tours Organizers’ Welfare Association said today that the intending Haj pilgrims should know that only those tour operators who have been authorized by the Ministry during 2012, 2013 and 2014 are authenticated for Haj booking and others are not. The names of authorized tour operators are available on the Haj Committee Website www.hajcommittee.com and the Ministry website www.mea.org.in. In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, there are only 47 operators who are eligible.
Giving these details at a media meet at NSS here, the Association President Md. Abdul Razzak, vice President Mohammed Afzal and other office-bearers appealed to the pilgrims to check the website and contact the registered agencies who have been authorized by the Ministry. They said that it was a matter of great anguish that since the last few years, the unauthorized agencies were offering pilgrimage at the minimum and cheaper expenditure and the poor and middle class people were attracted and trapped by them. They pay their hard earned money to these cheats who cannot arrange the tour and the Haj dream is not realized. Moreover they get back their money in deferred payment. These agencies open their shops in the name similar to established registered and popular agencies. These unscrupulous agencies are collecting the money from a number of people and then in the name of draw, they are collecting extra amount. Except official Haj committee, no agency can adopt the system of draw.
They also said that there is specified quota for every agency and no one can go beyond that quota, 109 for cate4gory one and 50 for category two. The subagents of other States like Gujarat, Maharashtra cannot take booking for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. A Gujarat agency has cheated many pilgrims in Hyderabad and in the past, a Vijayawada agency has cheated 40 pilgrims. (NSS
