Mumbai:
Even as eight more days are to go for the last date, the Haj
Committee of India has received more than 1,50,000 applications
from the people who are willing to go to haj in the year 2013.
The figure is 25,000 more than the
quota allotted to India by the Saudi government.
"We have received more than 1.5 lakh
applications till March 12 from all across the country so far for
the haj 2013", a Haj Committee official said while talking to
ummid.com.
"This is 25,000 more than the quota
allotted to the country by the Saudi Hajj Ministry", he added.
The Haj Committee of India started
receiving
applications from February 06. The last date of the application is
March 20.
The applications received from many
states are also more than the actual quota allotted to them by the
Haj Committee of India.
"Applications received from
Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala and few other states are more
than what we had received in the last year. The figure is also
manifold higher than their allotted quotas", he added.
The number of applications are
expected to increase even further as there are still eight days to
go for the last date.
"Last year, the Haj Committee had received 98,000 applications in
the last 10 days with 48,000 applications being received on the final
day", he said.
"From Maharashtra alone the Haj
Committee has received a total of 23,238 applications", he said.
"Besides Assam, Tripura, West
Bengal. Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar is the state
from where we have received just 1542 applications. It is the
least we have received from any state", he said.
More than 3.5 million people from
all across the world go to Makkah for haj every year. To control
the crowd, the Saudi government has allotted quotas to all
countries based on the population of the Muslims.
India has been allotted a quota of
1,25,000 hajis. The Haj Committee of India has distributed its
quota to the states based on the percentage of the Muslim
population.
More than the double of the allotted
quota every year apply to the Haj Committee of India for Haj.
Applications of the half are rejected as the selection is done by
a draw.
Recently the Govt. of India
restricted the haj from the Haj Committee to once-in-a-lifetime.
It says, the "decision has been taken to
give opportunities to those pilgrims who have never performed Haj
before".
The decision, however, received
strong opposition from the Muslims. It has also been challenged
in the court.
|