SUBSIDY REMOVED, BUT RECORD NUMBER OF PILGRIMS GOING ON HAJ

whereas in 2018, a total of Rs 973 crore will be paid to airlines for 128,002 Haj pilgrims. This means that Rs 57 crore less will be paid to airlines this year even after ending the Haj subsidy,” the MMA report said.

“This year, a total of 128,002 pilgrims will go through the Haj Committee of India (HCI), including about 47% females. The rest of the 47,023 Haj pilgrims will go through Private Tour Operators,” the MMA report said.

According to the MMA, a total of 6,700 pilgrims will go from Ahmedabad, 350 from Aurangabad, 5,550 from Bengaluru, 254 from Bhopal, 11,700 from Cochin, 4,000 from Chennai, 19,000 from Delhi, 5,140 from Gaya, 450 from Goa, 2,950 from Guwahati, 7,600 from Hyderabad, 5,500 from Jaipur, 11,610 from Kolkata, 14,500 from Lucknow, 430 from Mangalore, 14,200 from Mumbai, 2,800 from Nagpur, 2,100 from Ranchi, 8,950 from Srinagar and 3,250 from Varanasi.

This year, for the first time, the choice of embarkation points has been given to Haj pilgrims. There are a total of 21 Haj embarkation points (EPs) in the country—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Cochin, Indore, Srinagar, Bhopal, Guwahati, Mangaluru, Aurangabad, Varanasi, Jaipur, Nagpur, Ranchi, Gaya, Ahmedabad and Goa.

Earlier this year, the Centre had announced abolishing the Haj subsidy and using the funds thus saved for providing education to minority communities. Haj subsidy referred to discounted airfares given to Mecca-bound pilgrims fly- ing by government-owned Air India. It also included assistance for domestic travel within India to reach special airport terminals meant for Haj departure.

Commenting on the success of getting more number of pilgrims for Haj, Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: “Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, our government has succeeded in getting India’s Haj quota increased for the second consecutive year. Also, the BJP government’s commitment to making the entire Haj process transparent has changed the way Haj arrangements used to be. Introduction of an online process has helped to make the entire Haj process transparent and pro-pilgrims.”

The Haj Committee of India is a statutory body of the Central government, which organises pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia. It was established under the Haj Committee Act, 2002.

“Besides, the increase of total number of pilgrims, for the first time, Muslim women from India will also go to Haj without ‘Mehram’ (male companion). A total of 1,308 women have applied to go for Haj without ‘Mehram’ and all of these women have been selected through the lottery system and allowed to proceed to Haj,” the ministry report said.

The Centre is in talks with Saudi Arabia for making sea routes operational for Haj pilgrims. The ministry has said that Saudi Arabia has given the green signal for India’s decision of reviving the option of sending Haj pilgrims through the sea route. Currently, officials from both countries are discussing the necessary formalities and technicalities in this direction.