This is to bring to your notice and in specific the inhumane, irrational and hostage like treatment meted out to Me and My Wife, by Mr Akram Khan – M.D, the Meena Group, which is based our of Srinagar.

A little background on this trip, is that we are 4 of us travelling for Amarnath Yatra and were given confirmation by Travel agents for …. 1 night stay in proper hotel/camp in Sonmarg , helicopter ride back and forth – Baltal to Panchtarni and back ( leaving early morning and return on same day) , 2 nights stay in Meena houseboat in Srinagar, breakfast, lunch/dinner included, local transport from Srinagar airport , local sightseeing in Srinagar and Sonmarg , drop at Srinagar airport. We were 4 people, Myself, My Wife and another friend couple. This trip was planned 3 months in advance and all details and confirmation, including advance payment was done to Pelican Travels . The balance payment ,was to be done to Pelican Travels post our return back to Mumbai. Pelican Travels had put us in touch with the Meena Group - Mr Khan to collect the helicopter tickets and further itenary in Srinagar.

I am attaching you the mail trail which clearly depicts our harrowing experience from the time we landed in Srinagar . We have been following up on mail , with all our travel people , the Travel Agents – Pelican Travels- Mr Chandrapkash , Mr Jalan who are Gujarat based and Meena Group Houseboats- Mr Khan who are Srinagar based. Both these travel company had jointly planned our trip for Amarnath Yatra.

Inspite of these mail we have written to them , and folllow up , till date we have not got any revert or response, which can only mean that they don’t care and can treat any tourist, the way they want and get away with it.

We request you to spare some time and go thro all the 2 letters we have written to these travel agency . Our harrowing experience and treatment by these travel company , is narrated in detail . In case you need any further information or clarification, plse let us know and we shall provide it to you.

As a tourist , we believe that we must bring this incidence to your notice, as we believe we will get justice, a fair hearing and a fair settlement.

You are our only hope left.

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Plse see our letter # 1 to these Travel Agency.

To Mr Chandraprakashji, Mr Khan, Mr Jalan,
I would like to state the following for the Amarnath Yatra which was organized by your Group/Company for 4 pax.
- This trip was completely dependent on time management and correct information. This according to me was the most basic expectation from any professional travel company. We have given our requirement to you for this trip almost 3 months in advance. For your information we have not made any changes to schedule what so ever and stuck to the schedule give by you. Inspite of confirmation on schedule, paying advance money , multiple follow up via calls/sms , WE did not get the required services and correct information from your company.
- I am going to state few things which pertain in specific to the CAR, CAMP STAY, HELICOPTER TICKETS, etc
- We have always asked from 2 months prior to our journey or a early morning helicopter ticket timing , we were shocked to know that the helicopter ticket given to us was for 12 pm . Before we reached Meena Group office to collect our helicopter tickets, we must have made multiple calls, sms to check on timing and all along we are assured that we will get helicopter ticket time of our choice which is early morning . When I got the helicopter tickets and inquired ,why was it so late. Your Mr Ali informed us that this is the best , take it or leave it kind of attitude. Having come to Srinagar , when we all along, since past 2 months have kept insisting for helicopter and early timing, we had no choice but to accept the ticket and the 12 pm time. We were given the assurance by Mr Ali, that not to worry on time, and that we should go early morning to the helicopter base in Baltal and request the Summit helicopter people and that they will give you the early morning helicopter time.
- The trip started for Baltal in the AC Innova car . The AC was required to be switched off intermenently as the driver informed us that there are slope on road and the car would slow down, if AC is kept on . We agreed and understood and were subjected to heat and dust coming from the road. We requested your driver to keep the AC on , however he kept pursuing the issue of slow down, we relented and continue to take dust and heat in the journey .
- We reached Baltal - Green Camp. The location of camp is excellent, however as soon as we entered we were shocked to find that the tent allocated to us had just a bed and a separate designated area for bathroom, which had a tap for water and a pot . The pot was not cleaned and smelling, we had to clean it on our own as the person we requested to clean did not come in TIME. The dinner served to us was very basic. We had informed the Manager –Zuber that we had to wake up at 4 am and leave by 5 am for helicopter base camp, so we would need tea , coffee and hot water. Since it was very very cold we asked him for room heater, the Manager said this is a tent and they do not have any room heater. To our surprise during the night there were horses hovering around our tent and kept making noises , which resulted in almost not good sleep . The tent was very very cold inspite of the blanket given. While booking for the camp, when I had a talk with Mr Chandraprakash, I had made it very very clear on what facility will be in the camp and he assured me that the tent is like a hotel room and will have all facility like a hotel room and that I should not worry about anything. We had to go and wake up the cook, the staff at around 4 am , and asked them to serve us tea and coffee. We asked them to heat the water . We did not get hot water , tea and coffee almost until about 5.45 am. All this time we are subjected to delay and the cold , taking a toll on our health.
- We reached the helicopter base camp around 6.30 am of Summit Aviation and literally there was a big queue and there was no way we could even make any inquiry to know if we could get a early ticket as assured by Mr Ali. We had to keep waiting in line. During this time I called Mr Chandraprakash and even smsed that he should try and talk to Meena and see what they could do to expedite. But there was no revert on my calls or sms. During this time we tried reaching the Sumit people and even the Police/Military and all were told is to just keep waiting in line. We kept on pursuing and tried to inquire and our time to the counter came around 11.30 am. The Summit people took our tickets and we had to wait again for collecting our boarding pass. It appears that there was no system or information from anyone from Sumit on when will we get to board the helicopter even though the time written in ticket was 12 pm. We had to keep waiting in cold and rains and our time of helicopter take off was around 2.30 pm.
- We reached Panchtarni around 2.45 pm . We took the palki and left for the darshan. Our time of darshan with all the wait and rush came at around 7.30 pm. We finished the darshan and came down around 8.15 pm. We had no choice but to return back to Panchtarni , as by this time there was no decent tent facility available, near the base camp close to caves, the tents available were only with a sheet covering on ice and limited blankets. We kept on inquiring and at around 9 pm we had to take a decision to return back to Panchtarni. It was one of the most life threatening decision we took, because it was extremely cold, hilly terrain , dark , we were the only 4 people who were returning back on palki at such a time. We had no choice but to travel back to Panchtarni and search for a tent . We reached Panchtarni and somehow begged for a tent and got one basic tent, we stayed the night in Panchtarni . We did not sleep this night too, as it was extremely cold , taking a toll on our health.
- We took the helicopter flight next morning back to Baltal, our time for helicopter take off was around 8 am, after we standing in line for 2 hours , in such weather , without sleep for 2 nights.
From our experience which we have stated, we have been subjected to worst services at Green Camp, We lost sleep, our health is impacted, we have body pain, cold and maybe fever. We lost our one night stay in House boat. We lost out on many other sightseeing, and shopping opportunity which we had decided to take back home. Plse note one imp factor in all this, all the discussion between myself and Mr Chandraprakashji was that the balance settlement will be done when we reach Mumbai. Hence we had not planned to pay any money to be given to Meena in Srinagar, since Mr Chandrapraksh insisted I removed Rs 10,000/- money from ATM and had given to Meena on the day we began the journey viz on 28th.June.
After having subjected to such worst services and loss to us, I want to know from all of you on how are you going to address it. I insisted to meet Mr Khan and he assured me last evening when we met briefly for 5 min, as he had to meet the Governor, that he will look into all my issue and have promised that the GM will meet me today to address all my issue. Mr Khan wants me to give all issue pertaining to Helicopter and the treatment subjected to us from Summit, which I would do in a separate mail, but want I see here is a much larger issue and the kind of services rendered from your company.
I would like to pay, only for the good service and stay which is rendered satisfactorily to me. I would like to pay in Mumbai as per agreed. I think this is a very fair expectation from me . I request fairness in return.
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Plse see our letter # 2 to these Travel Agency

This is to inform and put on record the inhumane treatment meted to Me and My Wife from Meena Group and in specific Mr. Khan- MD Meena Group.
Based on the previous mail and as we were informed to us by Mr Khan , he had assured that a GM from his company will come and meet us in morning time to discuss and address all our issue, to our satisfaction . To our surprise, their was no one from Meena Group nor the GM who came to meet us in morning.
We had a flight to catch at 2 pm, we had a taxi pick up arranged at 11.30 am, as we were informed and aware that there are multiple security checks.
We were picked up by taxi not at the designated time of 11.30 am , but almost at 11.50 am, even though we had reached the taxi pick up point at 11.25 am.
We put our luggage in the car to be dropped, thinking that we are going to get dropped at airport, at this point in time which is almost 12 pm we are told that we have to go to Meena Group Office. Since it was getting late for airport drop , we refused to go to the office and informed the driver that he should take us directly to the airport . There was a representative from Meena group, who insisted that we MUST go to office. We kept showing him the tickets and kept insisting that let us go and any money issue we would talk and would like to settle when we reach Mumbai , which was what was originally agreed upon with Mr Chandraprakash. This representative than made us talk to Mr Khan who once again insisted to pay money , to which we said that since it getting late, we would pay based on how you will address the issues raised and only pay for the service given to us. Mr Khan refused and said that he was told by Pelican Travels that I will have to pay the full money there and than in Srinagar . Meanwhile , we talked to Mr Jalan, we were informed by Mr Jalan that we should not delay and leave for airport and that he will talk to Meena and Mr Khan and settle the matter. Meanwhile the driver took u turn and forced us and took us to Meena group office premise. All this while we were loosing precious time for reporting to airport. While we were outside the Meena Group office, we requested all the representative that they should talk to Mr Jalan and Mr Chnadraprakash for any money issue, but they refused to discuss and kept insisting that we pay money. They did not allow us to take any other vehicle to airport , refused to hear our side of issue and kept on saying to pay than and there.
I tried to talk to Mr Khan on why did the GM who was promised to come and discuss and address our issue did not come in time and why are you raising this issue of money now when we are already late for airport, and are forcing me to pay money now. But Mr Khan refused to respond to my question and kept on insisting that I come to his office and only than he will let us leave. Mr Khan literally held me and my wife as hostages. Since the luggage was in the car given by Meena Group. Meanwhile my wife started crying and could not bear this treatment meted out to us. All this was happening in open public and there would be enough eyewitnesses which could vouch that we were being unnecessarily harassed by Mr. Khan.
I had no option but to remove Rs 10,000/- from ATM , in hope that whatever balance, would be settled post addressing our issue raised in our previous mail. In spite of offering Rs 10,00/- money to Mr Khan, he insisted that I pay him in full and that he was not interested in what Mr Jalan or Mr Chandraprakash said , all he said ,was that he was informed to collect money from Us and that he will not let us go without paying the money.
Looking at the loss of time, the stress on us, wife crying relentlessly, I had to go into Meena group office and had to pay money in full via cash and credit card. In total we have paid the following amount directly to Meena Group on and above the advance already paid to Pelican Travels as under:
Rs 10,000/- on 28th June to Meena Group in their office
Rs 10,000/- on 1st July to Meena Group in their office
Rs 13,100/- paid by credit card on 1st July to Meena Group in their office
Total payment of Rs 83,000/- is done until this day which is 1st July.

Post the payment we were allowed to go . We had lost a lot of time and it was almost 12.30 pm. We had to rush , we requested the security people on our flight time and asked them to expedite and lt us go early , we have requested the security people from outside the airport upto the Indigo check in counter, and fortunately all of them understood our situation and expedited all the checks and check in formalites. We just about managed to catch the flight and were the last few people to board the aircraft.
The treatment meted out to us by all of you is just harrowing. We mearly asked for settlement of money in Mumbai post you people looking at what we were subjected to as per my previous mail . We only requested for fairness from all of you .
My wife who is thoroughly disturbed and stressed has her question which she needs answered on and above what I have written:
Who is responsible for giving us such bad helicopter service provider when yr own people say that Sumit was the wrong choice? Who is going to pay for our palaki charges costing 4000/- per person which had to be taken because of late tickets issued to us by you ? Who is going to pay for the extra money we paid of 2500/- for the rent of our stay at Panchtarini? We missed our one night stay at Srinagar, who is going to refund us the monies , when everything was as per schedule agreed between us and planned by your company . What kind of travel and repute holiday planners are we dealing with ? You people gave us such a harrowing service, in our life for the first time we had a nervous breakdown on a holiday. What kind of services you rendered in the service industry? For your information, Mr Jalan is aware that we have had our holiday planned in past , have we not payed for the service rendered to us ? You should have something called trust and judge people differently . Would like some answer for such harrowing, disturbing , irrational ‘gundagiri , behavior with clients of our class.
We are going to knock every possible door in the system , the Industry , until we get fair hearing and fair settlement .