By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Mumbai: The government of India announced an increase in the annual Haj quota this year which raised hopes for many applicants whose forms for the pilgrimage was rejected earlier this year.
But in the absence of any detailed notice from the government on how it has planned to select these few is causing a great deal of problem for hopeful applicants, many of whom are a regular visitor of the central office of Haj Committee of India (HJI) these days.
Ironically there are notices fixed in the HJI office asking the visitors not to consult the HJI concerning the recent increase in the Haj quota according to a report published in the Mumbai based Urdu daily Inquilab
This year the HJI received a whopping 2, 73,000 applicants whereas the quota is only 1, 10,000.
It was only on the insistence of the Urdu daily that the Superintendent of HJI revealed the government’s plan on implementing the recent increase in the Haj quota.
He pointed out that the government has recently increased the quota by 3211. But he also explained that till now the government has kept these seats to itself. It has decided that these seats will be given to the applicants whom the Member of Parliament (MP) and the Ministers recommended after its state wise distribution for this.
He informed that the last date of submission of applications under this quota is October, 15, 2008.
He further said that the coming of people to HJI in this regard in a waste of time because although the increase is on the name of HJI but the government has kept the authority of its distribution to itself.
He requested the hopeful applicants not to waste their time around the HJI office instead they can approach the MPs and Ministers for their recommendation.
Moreover Paloly Mohamed Kutty the Kerala minister for Local Self-Government and also in charge of the Haj portfolio has criticized the way in which the Central government has decided to select people to fill up the recent increase in the seats for Haj pilgrims.
According to him some seats should have been available under State Haj Committees but not even a single seat is there under this category.
He considered this as violation of all norms and accused the centre of resorting to money, power and political considerations.
To make the matter worse the website of Haj Committee of India is unavailable because its website account has been suspended by the host.
Link:
http://www.hajcommittee.com/