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U.P. Haj panel member resigns

Atiq Khan

Cites mismanagement and dictatorial attitude of its chairman for the step

LUCKNOW: Rattled by the criticism of the newly-formed UP United Democratic Front for ignoring the cause of the Muslims, the Mulayam Singh Yadav government suffered a setback when a member of UP Haj Committee, Chaudhary Saulat Ali, submitted his resignation on Friday.

He has cited mismanagement in the Haj Committee and the dictatorial attitude of its chairman, Mohd Azam Khan, as reasons for putting in his papers.

A senior member of the Samajwadi Party, Mr Ali is a former MLA from Moradabad Rural assembly constituency.

The Haj Committee has 15 members including the chairman, and following the member's resignation it has been reduced to 14 members. Significantly, all the committee members were handpicked by Mr Khan when the panel was formed in 2003.

Blaming the chairman for the chaos in the Haj Committee, Mr Ali told `The Hindu' that the manner in which the applications for the lottery of the pilgrims were received raised several eyebrows.

"The committee office was closed at 12 midnight on July 4 on the instructions of the chairman despite the fact that around 500 to 600 applications were left unattended. This year's Haj quota from the State has been fixed at 21,800, if around 27,000 applications were received what prevented the offiicials to accomodate another 600 applicants, " he said.

Besides, he said the chairman has constantly refused to meet the officials of the Central Haj Committee in a bid to increase the quota of Hajis from Uttar Pradesh.

The lottery for the pilgrims was drawn by the Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday and on the same day Mr Khan left for Dubai to collect funds for the proposed Mohd Ali Jauhar University.

In fact, Mr Ali also blamed the chairman and the committee for the mismanagement during last year's Haj pilgrimage where the UP Hajis faced several difficulties.

Meanwhile, the UP Family Welfare Minister, Ahmed Hasan, held a press conference today to refute the allegations of the Front for ignoring the Muslims.

Stating that unlike the previous BJP and BSP regimes, the Mulayam Singh Yadav government has given due recognition to the minority community, the minister said that in fact, the Muslims' trust in the SP has increased. There were five Muslim Cabinet ministers out of 25, seven of the 33 Samajwadi Party MPs and 26 of the 185 ruling party MLAs were also Muslims, he said.

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