TS Haj Committee bags best 'Embarkation Point Award'

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Haj Committee has bagged the best 'Embarkation Point Award' for 2022-23 in Delhi presented by Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs. The State Haj Committee is hopeful that from this Haj season close to 10,000 Hajis of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh would leave for pilgrimage from Hyderabad embarkation point as the Central Haj Committee is to reduce the expenditure by at least Rs 1 lakh bringing a sigh of relief to the aspirants.

On November 12, after receiving the award from the Union minister at the All India Haj Conference, which was attended by the office-bearers of the Central Haj Committee and in-charges of the State Haj Committees, the latter requested the minister to reduce the expenditure of the pilgrimage. The TS Haj Committee put up a proposal of 7,000 quota, while 3,000. Thus a total of 10,000 Hajis will leave from Hyderabad.

State Haj Committee chairman Mohammed Saleem, on Tuesday, informed that the Union minister responded positively to a request for taking steps to reduce the Haj expenditure. For 2022 Haj it will cost more than Rs 4 lakh. "At the meeting we requested her to bring down the cost to between Rs 2.5 and Rs 3 lakh making the pilgrimage more affordable to aspirants. The minister promised to cut the cost by at least Rs 1 lakh.

"At the next meeting a decision will be taken. We are also pushing hard for bringing down the expenditure of Umra, particularly review of the Visa cost, which has gone up. By the first week of December, there will be clarity from the Centre." He stated that the Central Haj Committee would be releasing the new guidelines for pilgrimage in December," he explained.

Moreover, the Central Haj Committee was planning to increase the annual Haj quota to two lakhs from the current year's 75,000. The State Haj Committee has requested the Centre to increase the Telangana quota to 7,000 from the current quota of 2,171 and Andhra Pradesh quota from 900 to 3,000," he said.

The Centre has also agreed to remove the age restriction for Hajis. During Covid people only below 60-years were allowed to perform Haj. Now the government has decided to allow people of all ages from next year," informed Saleem.

The chairman also assured that all efforts are being made to ensure Hajis of 2023 have a comfortable pilgrimage. "If the Khadim-ul-Hujjaj (Haj volunteers) are found to be irresponsible during the pilgrimage, this time action will be taken against them," he assured.