This story is from September 22, 2016

856 pilgrims from U’khand went for Haj this year

An estimated 856 people from the state went for the Haj pilgrimage which started in August this year, according to Rao Sher Mohammad, chairman of the Uttarakhand Haj Committee (UHC) which is based in Piran Kaliyar near Roorkee. This was an improvement from the 768 pilgrims who made the journey to Saudi Arabia last year, he added. “An achievement for us this year is that we were able to send people above the age of 70, which was not permissible earlier,” he said.
856 pilgrims from U’khand went for Haj this year
An estimated 856 people from the state went for the Haj pilgrimage which started in August this year, according to Rao Sher Mohammad, chairman of the Uttarakhand Haj Committee (UHC) which is based in Piran Kaliyar near Roorkee. This was an improvement from the 768 pilgrims who made the journey to Saudi Arabia last year, he added. “An achievement for us this year is that we were able to send people above the age of 70, which was not permissible earlier,” he said.

ROORKEE/PITHORAGARH: An estimated 856 people from the state went for the Haj pilgrimage which started in August this year, according to Rao Sher Mohammad, chairman of the Uttarakhand Haj Committee (UHC) which is based in Piran Kaliyar near Roorkee. This was an improvement from the 768 pilgrims who made the journey to Saudi Arabia last year, he added. “An achievement for us this year is that we were able to send people above the age of 70, which was not permissible earlier,” he said.
Even though the number of pilgrims increased this year, a former member of the Haj committee in Pithoragarh said that not a single Muslim in the district could go for Haj as the quota for pilgrims implemented during the ND Tiwari government had been abolished. “A Haj quota was allotted to the pilgrims but after its abolition, not many people have been able to go on the yatra. This year, nearly 15 people applied from Pithoragarh, but none of the applications were approved. A quota for 14 people is reserved for people of Pithoragarh, but only five or six manage to go on pilgrimage every year,” said Haji Naseem, who was a member of the Haj committee during former CM ND Tiwari tenure. He added that "during Tiwariji's tenure, almost 1400 pilgrims went for Haj. Now, Muslims in hill districts get less opportunities to go on the pilgrimage as compared to people in the plains."
According to Mohammad, the Saudi government, since the last couple of years, is trying to control the inflow of Haj pilgrims. “As the quota for pilgrims is decided by the Saudi government for each country, the quota for Indians is also curtailed by their government. Therefore, Uttarakhand loses out on the numbers of pilgrims in the given quota,” he said. He added that the concerns of people in hill districts regarding going for the pilgrimage are genuine and will be addressed soon. “We will soon formulate a district Haj committee to provide hassle-free service to people in hilly regions of the state,” he said.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA