The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : MPs meet Prime Minister on Haj issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 06, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

MPs meet Prime Minister on Haj issue

Special Correspondent

3,939 had applied from the State Karunanidhi urged him not to impose any upper limit on the number of people who could undertake the pilgrimage from Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Democratic Progressive Alliance MPs on Friday met the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to press for Haj travel for all those who apply.

A press release said the Prime Minister assured them that appropriate action would be taken on the issue.

The team that met the Prime Minister included T.R. Baalu, K. Venkatapathy and Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, A. Krishnasamy (all DMK), N.S.V. Chithan (Congress), A.K. Moorthy (PMK), S. Ravichandran (MDMK), Appadurai (CPI), Mohan (CPI-M) and Khader Mohideen (IUML).

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president, M. Karunanidhi, wrote to the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister on the issue on Thursday.

He requested the Prime Minister not to impose any upper limit on the number of people who could undertake Haj pilgrimage from Tamil Nadu. All those who apply should be permitted, he said.

He said for 2005-06, as many as 3,939 had applied from the State.

Mr. Karunanidhi said he had learnt that only 3,004 had been permitted. Hence he wanted the doing away with the upper limit on the number who could travel.

Mr. Karunanidhi said when he was the Chief Minister, he had allowed everyone who had applied to travel to perform Haj. This system was being followed till last year.

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