Author: ANI
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: June 29, 2009
URL: http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090629/808/tnl-haj-pilgrims-passports-won-t-require.html
In a bid to facilitate the issuance of temporary
passports to Haj pilgrims, the UPA Government has decided to do away with
police verification process.
On Monday, the Haj Committee of India said
the Government's decision to this effect came after two meetings in Delhi
and Bangalore on June 8 and 10 June, chaired by N Ravi, Secretary (East),
Ministry of External Affairs.
"The police verification for Haj pilgrims
has been waived off. The decision was taken keeping in mind the difficulties
in issuance of passports to pilgrims in a short span of two months,"
said Mohd Owais, the Chief Executive Officer of Haj Committee of India, in
the national capital.
The issue of Haj passport for Saudi Arabia
will be valid for eight months only and this will not be renewed.
However, Owais said those pilgrims who would
like to make their Haj passports a permanent one later, will have to go through
police verification.
Owais also said that pilgrims, who have already
submitted their application forms for passport and their police verification
pending till 20th June, will be issued passports.
"If there is no adverse reports, pilgrims
will get their passports," Owais said, adding the Haj Committee has received
around 3.57 lakh applications this year from devotees who want to perform
Haj this year.
"The Haj Committee has a quota of 1.04
lakh while the private sector has a quota of 45,000. The rest is that of government
quota," Owais said.
The decision to issue passports came in the
backdrop of Saudi Arabia insisting that the pilgrims should carry international
passports.
"We had meetings with them. But they
said they wanted a uniform pattern and said they cannot change the deadline
in this regard for India alone," Owais said. (ANI)