Srinagar, Nov 7: The State Hajj Committee cancelled Saturday’s Hajj flight due to non-availability of passports to nearly 100 intending pilgrims, officials said. The SHC has rescheduled the last flight for November 12, its chairman A G Shahbaz said.
 According to schedule, today’s flight was this year’s last from Srinagar. On October 20, first batch of 401 pilgrims left for Jeddah for Hajj pilgrimage out of total 7630. So far 7387 intending Hajjis have left for the pilgrimage.
 The intending pilgrims have blamed the State Hajj Committee for the delay. They said they were given impression by the State Hajj Committee officials that their documents were not returned by Hajj Committee Mumbai which oversees pilgrimage process in India.
 “I was perturbed by the delay and went to the Mumbai office to check the veracity. There, I was shocked to find out that they had informed the State Hajj Committee about the discrepancies in the documents,” said a relative of an intending pilgrim. He said the Mumbai Hajj Committee had informed the State Hajj Committee about the incomplete documents but the SHC didn’t take the communications from their Mumbai counterparts seriously and caused unnecessary delay.
 The Hajj Committee of India had allotted an additional quota of 1500 seats for Jammu and Kashmir after the State Government’s intervention. The State Government completed the selection process for the additional quota through draw of lots on October 24, 2009. Some 200 intending pilgrims selected through the additional quota are held up due to lack of documents.
 Meanwhile sources said the documents of intending pilgrims who have been selected from the Government quota and the special quota have added to the problems. The Government quota category and special quota comprises of pilgrims selected under parliament member quota and the State Government quota respectively. Each parliament member can nominate 10 persons from his quota.
 The intending pilgrims nominated by the MPs have been slow in submitting their documents. “They have added to our problems,” said an official of the SHC. The Government, he said, has requested the Hajj Committee of India for more seats for special category. “The Government is still waiting for the response,” he said.
 The Hajj Officer, State Hajj Committee, Ali Muhammad Haroon said the documents for visa have been sent to Delhi office after the closure of Mumbai office. He said the flight which was scheduled for today has been rescheduled for next week and hoped till then all documents of all pilgrims would be complete. He said the State Hajj Committee would ensure that all the intending pilgrims selected by it in the additional quota would leave by the last flight.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Nov 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Nov 2009 00:00:00 IST