HCI receives 27,000 more applications than the allotted Haj quota of

Vadodara, Nov 20 (UNI) The Haj Committee of India (HCI) today said they have received a record number of 1.37 lakh applications for Haj-2006, as against the recently enhanced quota of 1.10 lakh.

Announcing that the Saudi government had increased HCI's quota from 1 lakh to 1 lakh ten thousand his year, following a request from the Central Government, HCI chairman Iqbal Ahmed, MP, said with this hike, the overall quota for Indian Haj pilgrims had risen to 1.57 lakh, including the 47,000 granted to private tour operators.

''The central Haj committee is now in touch with all its state bodies for proportionate distribution of the extra quota of 10,000 in the next couple of days,'' he said, adding that due preference would be given to the those on the waiting lists in different states.

Last year, the central committee had received a total of 1.6 lakh applications as against it's sanctioned quota of one lakh.

Talking to newsmen, Mr Ahmed said this year the number of applications had increased because of more demand from states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. These states would however, get their shares out of the 10,000 extra quota as per the HCI guidelines, he added.

Referring to the demand from Gujarat, the HCI chairman said out of the total 12,210 applications received this year, 4,474 were approved as per the quota, while 7,736 applications were rejected.

Last year, about 2000 applications were rejected by the Gujarat state Haj Committee as the state was alloted a quota of 3257 on the basis of its minority population.

Mr Ahmed said because of Air India's inability to provide adequate number of flights, the Saudi Arabia government had agreed to fly about 60,000 Indian Haj pilgrims to Mecca this time. The first Saudi Airlines flight from Gujarat would take off from Ahmedabad with nearly 350 Haj pilgrims, he added.

UNI SS WD VD HT1925