By Syed Zubair Ahmad,
New Delhi: This year’s Haj operation under the new Haj policy has been passed off without any major hassles and grievances as more than 1.7 lakh Indian pilgrims performed Haj through Haj Committee of India and private tour operators. For this, credit must go to the former Union secretary Afzal Amanullah IAS (Retd.), under his stewardship the New Haj policy 2018-22 was formulated.
Haj is one of the most complex organizational tasks undertaken by Government of India outside its borders. Although a five day religious congregation, it is virtually a year-long managerial exercise.
In terms of the Supreme Court directions regarding Haj Policies for the HCOI and PTOs, it was decided to review the existing Policies and frame a new Policy. Accordingly, the Ministry of Minority Affairs had constituted a Review Committee under chairmanship of Afzal Amanullah who is a veteran of Haj affairs (having ground knowledge and experience of Haj operations) and also served as the consul-general of India in Jeddah.
The committee was tasked to review the existing Haj Policy of the Government for 2013-17 and to suggest framework for new Haj policy 2018-22.
The committee had presented its 172-page detailed Report to the Minority Affairs Ministry last year which offered many suggestions for improving Haj arrangements and lessening financial burden on Indian pilgrims in the wake of phasing out the airfare ‘subsidy’.
It is needless to mention that the Indian Haj pilgrims constitute the third largest national group after Indonesia and Pakistan who perform Haj through the Haj Committee of India (HCOI), and registered Private Tour Operators (PTOs).
The arrangement of such a huge number of pilgrims is indeed a gigantic task and HCOI, established under the Haj Committee Act 2002, is responsible for making the arrangements for pilgrims performing Haj through them. All arrangements for the HCOI pilgrims in Saudi Arabia are coordinated by the Consulate General of India, Jeddah.
Besides Convener Amanullah, the review committee comprised of Justice S.S. Parkar, Retd. Judge of Bombay High Court, Qaiser Shamim, IRS (Retd) & former Chairman, Haj Committee of India, Kamal Faruqui, noted Chartered Accountant & Muslim Scholar as Members and J. Alam, Joint Secretary, in-charge of Haj, Ministry of Minority Affairs was the Member Secretary of the Committee. It had finalized its report after having extensive consultations with all the stake holders, community leaders and general public.
Among the major recommendations made by the Committee included reviving ship journeys, abolishing fare ‘subsidy’, reducing embarkation points (EPs) from 21 to 9, allowing global tender for air travel, exemption to HAJ Committee from GST, and other local taxes, breaking the cartel of contractors with a transparent bidding process for hiring buildings, ensuring the stay of all Indian Haj pilgrims within Mina, and allowing women aged above 45 to undertake the journey without male Mehram in a group of four etc.
Some important recommendations are as follow:
1. Distribution of quota between HCOI and PTOs to be rationalised in the ratio of 70:30 for the next 5 years.
2. Seats among the States/ Union Territories to be distributed in the ratio of their Muslim population as well as in proportion to the number of applications received.
3. Quota for Mehram to be increased from 200 to 500.
4. Special quota for Jammu & Kashmir to be increased from 1500 to 2000.
5. States/ UTs receiving less than 500 applications to get priority in distribution of surplus seats. This will benefit UTs like Andaman & Nicobar Island, Lakshadweep, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu & Puducherry as well as smaller States like Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur.
6. Reserved category of applicants viz. 70+ and 4th timers to be abolished.
7. Ladies above 45 years of age to be allowed in a group of 4 or more to go for Haj without Mehram.
8. Only one category of accommodation in Makkah, in Azizia and adjoining areas to be hired with new, multi storied modern buildings with transportation facilities for the pilgrims
9. Re-hiring arrangement to be made for new, good and big buildings in subsequent year.
10. All accommodation in Madinah to be hired in Markazia only.
11. Stay of all Indian Hajis to be ensured within the traditional boundaries of Mina.
12. Aadhi ( Sacrificial cattle) coupons to be made compulsory for each pilgrim.
13. Breaking cartel of contractors with transparent bidding process. Hiring rate to be brought down with better negotiations.
14. Embarkation Points (EPs) to be reduced from 21 to 9 which are (1) Delhi (2) Lucknow (3) Kolkata (4) Ahmedabad (5) Mumbai (6) Chennai (7) Hyderabad (8) Bengaluru and (9) Cochin. Suitable Haj houses to be built at these EPs. States/Districts to be tagged with each EP properly.
15. Facilities created in discontinued EPs to be used for round the year training, orientation of pilgrims and other productive uses for the community.
6. Saudi Government to be consulted regarding Haj travel by ship and thereafter floating an EOI to gauge the market for such travel.
Policy of the Government for Private Tour Operators
7. A robust portal to be developed for processing of PTO applications.
8. A committee of 2-3 experts to consider representations of PTOs aggrieved by Haj Division’s decisions.
9. PTOs to be categorised in three categories in accordance with their experience and financial strength. 10. A comprehensive empanelment policy for the PTOs to be formulated that would facilitate easier and quicker renewals. Empanelment to be done on the basis of documents as well as physical inspection of the PTOs. Stringent norms to be followed for blacklisting and forfeiture of security deposit of PTOs.
11. PTOs to collect full package costs from pilgrims through bank accounts only and render details to the Ministry before departure of pilgrims from India.
12. Each PTO to have a proper website with pre decided disclosure norms.
13. Nomenclature of PTO to be changed to Hajj Group Organiser (HGO).”
Other recommendations
14. Steering Committee to be co-chaired by Secretary (MoMA) and Secretary (MEA) with senior officials of other concerned Ministries to be constituted for better coordination.
15. Two members Haj Goodwill Delegation from India to continue.
16. Amendment in Haj committee act to include Umra and Ziyarat to Syria, Iran, Iraq and Jordan, removal of obsolete provisions, inclusion of official of MoMA in the HCOI, etc.”
Besides the above, there are several other recommendations for ensuring better coordination and accountability among various Ministries/ Agencies and to provide better facilities to the Haj Pilgrims. The panel also suggested that “Food should be non-spicy, and as far as possible, suitable to the palates of the particular region from where the pilgrims are coming.It has also recommended random inspections to check its quality by officials”. But this year, many complaints were registered about serving sub-standard foods.
However, one can see the present government had only cherry-picked those recommendations which suits it. For example, in order to please its ‘hardcore constituency’, the government had hastily abolished the airfare ‘subsidy’ without providing an alternative to Hajj pilgrims. The decision was also in contravention of the Supreme Court verdict on Haj subsidy. Notably the new Haj policy document has been drafted in light of a 2012 Supreme Court order asking the Centre to abolish the Haj subsidy gradually by 2022.
One can say if the new Haj policy implemented in letter and spirit not as piecemeal basis, the coming Haj pilgrimage would become smooth and comfortable.