UP’s Muslim Welfare Minister Md Azam Khan has shot off an angry letter to External Affairs Minister Shushma Swaraj criticizing her for curtailing the quota of Haj pilgrims from the state this year.
“This is shocking to know that Union Government has curtailed UP’s quota of Haj pilgrims by 1649 while it has doubled the quota of Gujarat. This is injustice towards Uttar Pradesh where over 25 per cent population is Muslim,” Khan said in his letter, which was released to the media on Wednesday.
He appealed to the Union External Affairs Minister to intervene and increase the quota of the Haj pilgrims of UP and make it rational as per the Muslim population. In a letter Khan said that Saudi Arabia Government has not curtailed quota of last year and it stands at 1,00,020. last year UP’s quota of Haj pilgrims was 23,685 but this year the Centre has curtailed it 1649 to 22,0019 while the quota of Gujarat has been increase by 100 per cent.
“We had earlier requested the Union Government to hike the quota from the last year, but surprisingly it has slashed it which is condemnable,’ Khan said in the letter. He said that last year the quota of Haj pilgrims from UP was increased by 6272 when 100020 people from the country were allowed to go for Haj. Khan has appealed to the External Affairs minister to reconsider the quota of the last year. India sends the third largest contingent to Haj in the world with UP gets one-fourth of the quota.