By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kochi: Muslim League state general secretary PK Kunhalikkutty refuted the charges against central minister E Ahmed of favouring a private travel agency in handling the Haj quota as politically biased. He added that the allegations had arisen during the time of elections and that they were baseless.
Famous channel CNN-IBN on August 26 alleged that a majority of the Haj quota was given to private Haj groups when E Ahmed was the minister in charge of Haj Affairs in the last UPA government. The report alleged that private tour operators gained much from this. A travel agency based in Kozhikode was given more seats than other agencies. The channel also alleged that corruption was involved in giving so many seats in government quota to the private agency.
However, Minister E Ahmed has refuted all allegations against him. He said that the travel agency in Kozhikode may have got more Haj quota due to their past performance. He added that he had worked to raise the Haj quota of the country from 72, 000 to 1, 57,000 by his good relations with Saudi Arabia.
Muslim organizations and Left leaders had earlier alleged that there was corruption in the Haj quota allotment. The issue was raised and much talked about during the general elections.
E Ahmed is the national president of the Muslim League and has served in various positions including the general secretary of the party in Kerala. He has also served as minister of industries in the state. He was elected to the Kerala Assembly consecutively for five years from 1967 to 1991. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991 and has represented Ponnani, Manjeri and Malappuram constituencies ever since. Presently he is the MP from Malappuram where he won with a huge margin of more than 1 lakh votes.