Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 23, 2003
The opposition on Monday walked
out of the Lok Sabha accusing the government of adopting a discriminatory
approach on the issue of subsidy for Haj pilgrims.
The protest was sparked by minister
for civil aviation Rajiv Pratap Rudi's statement that the Union cabinet
had reiterated its decision to give the subsidy to the pilgrims provided
they fulfilled three conditions.
The conditions are: they have to
avail the accommodation arranged by the Haj committee, the subsidy is to
be on the once-in-a-lifetime basis and be available only to those who are
not income-tax payees.
The minister responded when Speaker
Manohar Joshi reminded him that the opposition had raised the issue earlier
also. Mr Rudi said that at its meeting last week, the cabinet considered
the matter and decided that the conditions would stay.
He said that every pilgrim would
have to submit an affidavit fulfilling the three conditions. Of the 72,000
pilgrims, 55,000 have already produced the affidavits. "To dispense with
this practice now would be discriminatory to the 55,000 people who have
already done that," he said.
He said that to help those who could
not complete the formality, notaries would be present at airports.
The opposition members strongly
protested against the "rigid" government attitude and demanded that the
practice be dropped. "You cannot question the bona fide of a pilgrim,"
Congress chief whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said, terming it as discriminatory.
Ramjilal Suman (Samjawadi Party)
charged the government with denying the pilgrims an opportunity to perform
Haj. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD) and Rashid AM (BSP) said the new measure
amounted to harassment.
From the treasury benches, the BJP
and Samata members countered the opposition charges. "Why not subsidy for
pilgrims to Kailash-Mansarovar?" shouted Raghunath Jha (Samata).
Amidst the rising noise, the opposition
members walked out.