Jamal Siddiqui, the president of Maharashtra State Haj Committee says the preparations are in full swing
In a remarkable decision which came in the favour of women, Haj committee has announced that from now on, women can go on Haj independently. The Haj committee will take their responsibility unlike earlier where it was compulsory for them to be accompanied by their family members, stated Jamal Siddiqui, the president of Maharashtra State Haj Committee in a press conference on Wednesday. Apprasing the Modi government, Siddiqui said, “This has been possible due to the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister of Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.”
Noted that along with this, Saudi Arabia has escalated the seat counts by 25 thousand for Indians, which is the
highest in the world. Siddique says that this is remarkable the country hasn’t had to pay any extra charges for this.
The committee visited the airports at Mumbai, Nagpur and Aurangabad to check the arrangements for a hastle free process when the devotees leave for Mecca this year for Haj.
From Maharashtra, 14995 pilgrims will be going for Haj, out of which 496 pilgrims are from Nagpur. The committee received 2254 applications of devotees above the age of 70.
Siddiqui further added that another achievement this year is that women will be able to go on Haj independently with the support from the committee unlike earlier where it was compulsory for them to be accompanied by their family members.
Siddique also informed that 15 new flights of Air India have been made available for the pilgrims and this year the process has been made extremely easy as with the help of ‘Haji dost’, the coordination, operation and documentation will be taken care off by them.
Adding to this, provisions have been made with the help of the government and the committee, that the luggage this year will be sent 2 days prior to the departure of the pilgrims. This move will reduce stress and delay of the pilgrims and also will be helpful for the authorities to process the formalities at the time of boarding.
Hajis currently have to stay on rent in Mecca/Madina but the pilgrims from Hyderabad and Marathwada have the facility to stay at the Nizam’s building which reduces their total expense to half. The committee and minister Naqvi are trying for the government to also get their own building as the Saudi authorities are ready to provide land for the same.
Siddiqui also informed that the committee is also trying that the 30% of quota with the private tours and travels should be reduced to 5% as the committee is making arrangements for Haj at prices less than half of what the private agencies charge.
Siddiqui has also requested the pilgrims and devotees to not get duped by agencies and that the committee is available for their service and they would be taking further steps to ensure the best possible facilities of the pilgrims.
