Ministry of Religious Affairs has decided in principle to register the already enrolled Hajj Group Organisers (HGOs) for five years instead of renewing their agreements every year. The decision has been taken to streamline the Hajj affairs and ensure transparency in the entire process, official sources told APP here on Monday. "There will be no change in quota of HGOs and they will continue with the previous year's allocation," they said.
Commenting on last year's performance of HGOs, the sources said that the ministry had written letters to 8,000 pilgrims after completion of Hajj operation-2010 randomly to seek comments about provision of the agreed services during the pilgrimage. Only 300 to 350 Hujjaj replied and there was no serious complaint against any HGO, they added. They said that on gross violation of the agreement, licences of operators could be cancelled or their quota for next Hajj scheme could be curtailed.
Replying to a question about scrutiny of Hajj applications for the year 2011, they said the examination process would be completed by May 20. The ministry had so far declared around 50,000 intending Hujjaj successful after thorough scrutiny of their submitted documents, while letters of success had been sent to them on their given addresses. This year, formula of "first-come and first-served" is being followed to ensure transparency in the entire process.
The ministry had received the required number of applications from the intending pilgrims under the government scheme in 12 days against its quota of 90,000. This year, around 180,000 pilgrims would be sent to Saudi Arabia for performing the religious obligation under the government and private schemes.
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