CM orders crackdown on fraudulent travel agents
Tuesday, 07/11/2017
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/cm-orders-crackdown-on-fraudulent-travel-agents/493711.html
Jalandhar : Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today ordered a crackdown on unscrupulous travel agents in the state. The move followed a tweet by Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj seeking the CM’s intervention on the matter.
“I have directed the Punjab DGP to crack down on all such recruitment agents. We will protect our citizens at all costs,” Amarinder said in a tweet this morning.
The matter was taken up by Swaraj following numerous video messages posted by women hailing from Punjab seeking help from the Centre for their release from their “buyers” in Saudi Arabia.
Despite several cases of immigration fraud coming to the fore, the police are yet to take action against crooked agents.
Gurbaksh Kaur of Nawanshahr, who was recently rescued from Saudi Arabia, said the police had arrested Seema, her neighbour who had introduced her to agent Kulwinder Singh of Jalandhar. The latter was yet to be nabbed.
Paramjit Kaur, who is still stranded in Saudi Arabia, has also alleged that her agent Resham Bhatti of Gorse Nihal village had duped her and even put her life in danger.
“He is roaming freely in the village and is providing all updates to my employer about the media reports being published in Punjab. My employer has threatened me of dire consequences and even tried to damage my phone,” Paramjit Kaur alleged, while talking to The Tribune over the phone.
She said the Indian Embassy in Riyadh had asked her to pay 30,000 Riyals (Rs 5.32 lakh) to her employer to get out of the contract and to secure her release.
