How efficient our country and the authorities have become makes us feel proud right? Wrong!!! The Goa Airport Authorities have been known for being Harsh on many visitors to India have proved it once again, but this time they managed to push away the British Couple in their 70s for the reason of expiry of Visa by 5 mins. The couple who traveled to Goa from the UK to spend their first vacation in India has decided to never come back to this country again…
There is no doubt that Airport authorities did not face any loss due to the return of one couple from the UK neither the Tourism in Goa will face the loss but can you imagine the loss of that couple who spent 10 hours in traveling to India with the prior booking of stay in Goa everything for just the delay of 5 mins?
This incident apparently took place in the Month of March but appeared in one of the national media recently. According to the British Couple, Their dream of going to India was completely shattered due to the delay of just 5 mins. “We’ve wanted to go to India for ages, but we’re certainly not going back now,” said disappointed Ned, an old man in his 70’s. None of us would like to hear this from tourist entering our land. We want them spending their time well and cherish every memory taken back with them. But is it fair on the part of the Goa Airport authorities to ruin Ned’s trip to India, by refusing his entry just because they were 5 minutes delayed?
Ned Beercroft and his wife Margaret, an old couple from the UK planned their vacation with a holiday package in Goa. It was their dream to visit India for a very long time. If they had to arrive in India on March 21st instead of 5 minutes into March 22nd, they would have had their well-planned dream all set. When the couple was just a step away in accomplishing it, their dream was shattered to pieces at the airport.
According to the online website DNA, the couple took off from Gatwick at 9.15am on 21st March, but because of the four and half hour time difference they touched down at 12.05 am on March 22nd. Thus, they were denied entry by the authorities at Goa Airport, as the date of entry on the Visa document been had expired.
The poor couple had no other choice and were quite displeased by the fact that the authorities couldn’t even be a little considerate since they were just five minutes late. Not only that, the time difference doesn’t make it their fault that they were forced to go back to their country for no reason at all. According to the couple Margaret and Ned, the Indian authorities seem to take foolish things very seriously and avoid the real issues going on. Anybody would have got so upset, especially after a 10 hour flight journey. And the couple was forced to return calculating their trouble into a total of 20 hour journey. Just imagine the struggle of the sweet couple (who decided to visit India) had to face! Since being old and living their last days of life, this journey was probably on their bucket list and it was destroyed after what happened to them.
They complained to the Indian embassy immediately that day, but till today they have not received any reply. What is more terrifying is that the couple spent £2000 for their holiday package and wasn’t even refunded. That means the couple was not only hurt emotionally but was stripped financially.
77-year-old Ned told ‘The Sun’, “You just can’t argue with these people. We’re lucky the plane hadn’t left; otherwise, they told us we’d have to spend the night in a cell. We were totally exhausted by the whole thing, to arrive only to be turned back. It left us both really sick. It’s not good for anyone to be on a plane for that long, let alone when you get to our age. Why they had to send us home for the sake of five minutes on a piece of paper is beyond us,”
The statement made by Ned itself shares the grief of how disrespectful and stupid the Indian authorities can act. When there are so many other problems affecting the country right now, the government and authorities roam around acting unaware and chase unnecessary topics; indeed causing a bigger problem for the country and spoiling the nation’s name.
It is really a big hope to wait and expect the tourism department to take some action as the topic has heated up and come to light. After all, it is already obvious; in case of similar situations occurring in the future, Goa’s tourism could be destroyed. Tourism in Goa is like a daily bread and butter if the butter is over what is the bread to do without it?
