India unveils Haj website; seeks Saudi help to smoothen pilgrimage
The tri-lingual website aims to ease the application process and apprise pilgrims about the various do’s and don’ts during the journey
Dec. 20: Invariably left grappling with a deluge of nearly 4.25 lakh application of Haj aspirants every year against a total quota of barely 1.36 pilgrims allocated to India by Saudi Arabia, India today launched a trilingual website to ease the application process and smoothen up the whole pilgrimage.
Besides launching the website, the Indian Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also had a meeting with Saudi Arabia Ambassador to India Saud Mohammed Alasti to spruce up the cooperation and coordination between the two countries to make the life time experience of over 1.36 lakh Hajis a hasasle-free affair.
After meeting Alsati, Naqvi said the Saudi Arabia ambassador assured India of its full cooperation for the annual pilgrimage.
“In order to ensure safe and smooth pilgrimage for devotees from the country, we have advanced our co-ordination with Saudi Arabia’s administration. As part of the efforts, I met the Ambassador today and had detailed discussion. He has assured the government that they will extend support to Indian pilgrims,” Naqvi told reporters.
The Minister said he will also lead a delegation comprising senior officials and Haj Committee to Jeddah to hold meeting over the pilgrimage and arrangements concerned to be made in the first week of January.
At a separate event, Naqvi also launched the website (www.haj.gov.in) to apprise aspiring Haj pilgrims in three different language – Hindi, English and Urdu of various do’s and don’ts of the pilgrimage process and procedures, including that for making application.
The launch of the website, which seeks to serve as a one-step information window linking Ministry of Minority Affairs, Haj Department, Haj Pilgrimage, rules and regulations on Haj, Haj Committee of India and private tour operators came days less than a fortnight before the onset of Haj application process, starting January 2, 2017 for the next year pilgrims.
To a question, Naqvi replied the government will deploy senior officials in Saudi Arabia for overseeing preparations and coordinating with local government during Haj 2017.
He also stated the Ministry is planning to form an expert committee to look into grievances of pilgrims including the alleged differences in airfare charged at 21 embarkation points in India.
Naqvi said that discussions have been held with Civil Aviation Ministry officials to provide aircraft with modern facilities for pilgrims.
The government will deploy senior officials in Saudi Arabia for overseeing preparations and coordinating with local government during Haj 2017