India awaits Saudi word on Haj quota

Indian Muslims have their fingers crossed as they await the final word from the Saudi government, which is expected to restore the previous Haj quota of 1,70,000 that had been cut down to 1,36,000 owing to expansion work in Mecca. The announcement is on hold as the January bilateral meeting has been postponed till March in which the quota is decided.

In the meantime, the dates for distributing and accepting forms for Haj 2016 has been announced and the Haj committee has also made a few important changes towards making the procedures paperless and easy. A few changes have also been made to avert previous controversies.

The committee has announced that the process for 2016 through the Haj Committee of India (HOI) would commence on January 14 and the form would also be available on hajcommittee.gov.in. The forms would be accepted at the state Haj Committee offices till February 8. However, applications of only those would be accepted whose passport has been issued on or before February 8 and is valid up to March 10, 2017.

“We have updated our online system and now applicants can also submit online forms and all they have to do is follow the instructions,” said Ataur Rehman, CEO of the Central Haj Committee, adding that in the online system, the applicants will now have to fill in only one form instead of two for each individual.

He also said that to avoid major controversies of last year, an option has been added in the form and those who want the Haj Committee to perform Qurbani (sacrifice of animal) can mark the same. It may be recalled that last year it was decided that Haj Committee will take compulsory charge and perform Qurbani on behalf of all Haj pilgrims, but the idea was severely criticised by applicants and ultimately pilgrims were allowed to arrange for sacrifice on their own instead of leaving this task to the committee.

Another decision taken is that the committee will not provide suitcases and bags because there was some practical difficulty in supplying the same.

“We will only inform the people about the size and weight and they will have to make arrangements accordingly,” said Ataur Rehman. He also said that earlier all applicants were supposed to file their medical fitness report while submitting the form but now only a few selected people would be asked to submit the same.