To ease the procedures and address the problems being faced by Haj pilgrims, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will soon convene a meeting with Muslim members of Parliament.
These MPs have been flagging the problems being faced by the community — from having to pay exorbitant air fares to limited quota for travellers from India — and demanding an overhaul of the procedures for Haj pilgrimage.
A meeting with the MPs, to be chaired by Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd) V.K. Singh, is scheduled to take place here next week.
“Following the Supreme Court’s judgment of 2012, which struck down the Haj quota given to MPs, there have been complaints that it is harder for the poor to get requisite permissions to travel. There are complaints that private tour operators often end up fleecing people and there is a lot of red tape in the selection of pilgrims,” said an official familiar with the issue.
As of now, only the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister have a quota for recommendation, a move that has upset the MPs, who point out that their intervention was helpful for the financially weak.
Lack of arrangements“There are a lot of grievances that people have, for instance the headquarters of the Haj Committee is in Mumbai, and there has been a demand for moving it to Delhi for the convenience of travellers. There are no arrangements made for the people to stay once they arrive in Saudi Arabia; the financially weak especially find it hard to get accommodation, and find it hard to arrange local transportation. We have been raising these issues with the government for long now,” Janata Dal (U) MP Ali Anwar told The Hindu .
Speaking on condition of anonymity, another MP said there were problems with the functioning of the Haj Committee itself and some parliamentarians and prominent community members have been demanding a revamp of the committee itself.
