Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday pitched for increasing the quota of Capital’s pilgrims to Mecca and launched the Delhi State Haj Committee website to facilitate pilgrimage.
“The quota of Delhi for Haj this year was 1,163 for which 8,875 applications were filed. The flights for Haj will begin from August 17 and the State Government will also organise camps for vaccination and medical checkup of Haj pilgrims,” he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister requested the chairman of the Haj Committee of India, Qaisar Shamim, present at the launch, to increase the Haj quota of Delhi and assured him all cooperation from the Government’s side.
Sisodia launched the website of the Delhi State Haj Committee at the Secretariat here. The computerised draw of lots for Haj applicants was also held. Delhi State Haj Committee Chairman Parvez Mian said that the list of select Haj pilgrims from Delhi was available on the newly-launched website as well as the website of the Haj Committee of India.
Shamim said efforts were on for increasing the Haj quota of India. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) too was in touch with Saudi Arabia. “The Saudi Government had informally accepted the Indian request for increasing quota and the number of Haj pilgrims was likely to be more in the next year,” he claimed.
Based on the population recorded by the 2001 census, India was allotted a quota of 1.20 lakh Haj pilgrims by the Saudi Government, for which about 3.83 lakh applications were filed and on an average, one out of four applicants is selected for the Haj pilgrimage, he added.
Claiming that the MEA was highly supportive of the Haj Committee of India proposals, Shamim said efforts were also on to get the quota increased by introducing the 2011 census for reference.
Delhi’s Minister for Food & Civil Supplies Asim Ahmad Khan said he would seek Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s help in finding land for a Haj House in Delhi and also appealed to the Haj Committee of India’s chairman for increasing Delhi’s quota. Sisodia also appealed to the pilgrims to seek “divine blessings” for Delhi and for a Government free of graft and inflation.