In an important decision, the government has decided to go ahead with the annual Haj subsidy in 2012 as well. It has decided to go ahead with the subsidy despite demands from certain quarters, including some Muslim groups, that this subsidy be done away with as it is “unislamic”. However, the government has decided to restrict it to “only once in a pilgrim’s lifetime” as against the existing once in five years.
Union minister of external affairs S.M. Krishna had recently stated that the Centre was having “second thoughts” on continuing Haj subsidy. However, the government has now made its stand clear on the issue in its new Haj policy for the year 2012, filed as part of an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Friday (a copy is with this newspaper).
“This is a major change introduced for the first time. Restrict the number of pilgrimages to a Haj applicant through Haj Committee of India(HCOI) to once in a lifetime as against the existing once in five years. This will ensure that a Haji will benefit from GOI subsidy only once in his/her lifetime,” the affidavit stated.
The government has said that the Haj subsidy had been provided mainly to unburden pilgrims from the higher fares, which is imposed by the Airlines during the Haj period due to certain regulations imposed by the Saudi Arabian Authorities.
The new Haj policy has also decided to retain the reserved quotas being given for Bohra community and Kashmiri Muslims.
Meanwhile, it has cut down the size of the government’s goodwill delegation to 10 from the last year’s number of 27. It has reserved seats for persons above the age of 70.
In yet another important decision, the Haj Policy 2012 has stated that the government would not open up registration for new Priva-te Tour Operators (PTOs), saying, the Haj service cou-ld not be equated to any ot-her commercial venture.”