Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Thursday said the state government will bring an Act with provision of punishment and hefty fines to check unscrupulous travel agents, who “cheat innocent people” wanting to move abroad.
The Act is likely to be introduced in the Haryana Assembly’s Winter Session, which begins on Friday, he told reporters here.
Vij said there will be various provisions in the Act titled ‘The Haryana Registration and Regulation of the Travel Agencies Bill, 2023’, to curb illegal immigration.
He added that necessary steps have already been taken for registration of the travel agents in Haryana.
Responding to a poser, Vij said the state government wants that people’s hard-earned money should not fall into the hands of any fraudulent agent and added this Bill is, therefore, being brought.
The minister said that a total of 383 fraud cases were registered by the previous Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed over three years ago and 153 accused were arrested.
Vij said that a total of 625 fraud cases have been registered after April 17 till December 12 this year and 509 accused have been held.
He said that the recovery of over Rs 2.94 crore was made during this period, adding Rs 4.75 crore has been recovered in all.
The minister said that the SIT, headed by IPS officer Sibas Kaviraj and also comprising senior police officers Jashandeep Singh Randhwa and Abhishek Jorwal, was constituted on April 17 this year.
“People are paying hefty sums to these travel agents, but some unscrupulous agents cheat them. We don’t want to stop anyone moving abroad, but we don’t want them to fall prey to unscrupulous agents,” he said.