By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: As per the requests of the government of Saudi Arabia, an overall 20 per cent cut in Haj quota has been made by the government of India.
Owing to the large scale renovation and construction in the the two Holy cities of Mecca and Medina, Saudi government has cut requested the reduction in pilgrims from all over the world.
From the original 123,908 seats, this year only 120,303 people will be able to go on pilgrimage though the Haj Committee of India, that manage the pilgrimage of mostly poor people, selected though a lottery system. There has thus been an over all reduction of 3605 pilgrims.
Accordingly 20 % cut in the quota of all states were made. However, there has been an additional selection of 1137 Haj pilgrims from the ‘waiting list’, in which Uttar Pradesh, that send highest number of pilgrims have benefited.
UP originally has 33114 quota, but this year only 32173 lucky pilgrims were nominated through the Haj Committee. However, in the revised list due to vacancies arising out cancellations, 568 additional pilgrims have been selected from the Waiting list.
The advisory by the Saudi government has also affected the Hajis going through private operators as there has been considerable cut in their numbers too.
Saudi government has reduced the number of pilgrims from KSA by 50 % and from other countries by 20 % this year due to construction and renovation.
