The Hindu : New Delhi News : Enhance Haj quota, says Paswan

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Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008
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Enhance Haj quota, says Paswan

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Lok Jan Shakti Party has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to enhance the annual Haj quota.

In a letter to Dr. Singh, party president Ram Vilas Paswan said that every year the Centre had been making elaborate arrangements to facilitate Haj pilgrimage and under the United Progressive Alliance government the annual quota had been increased to 1.57 lakh.

Mr. Paswan said that the Haj quota allocated to the States had been exhausted and a large number of poor applicants could not be accommodated.

Left-out applicants

“Usually, applicants who are left out from the state quota approach the Centre for availing the limited Central quota. While a few of them do get covered, thousands of applicants still fail to get accommodated, and the number of the left-out applicants has been increasing over the years. The huge gap between the large number of applicants and the allotted quota for India is leading to dissatisfaction in the community at the ground level,” Mr. Paswan said.

Keeping in view the sentiments of the Muslim community, Mr. Paswan has appealed to the Prime Minister to take up the matter with the government of Saudi Arabia so that those aspirants who had been left out could be accommodated.

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