Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Sunday appealed to the union government to allot more seats for Tamil Nadu pilgrims to perform Hajj. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the CM has sought his attention in directing the ministry of external affairs to release additional quota for Tamil Nadu to enable more pilgrims to perform the Hajj this year.
A press release from Director of Information & Public Relations stated that the Tamil Nadu State Hajj Committee has received 15,032 applications from pilgrims in Tamil Nadu for Hajj 2015. The Hajj Committee of India, Mumbai, has allotted a quota of 2,585 seats only to Tamil Nadu this year.
As per the guidelines for Hajj 2015, out of the quota, 1,699 pilgrims have been selected under the reserved category, while 886 seats have been utilised for the general category pilgrims. This leaves 12,000 disappointed applicants.
During earlier years, the Government of India had released additional seats over and above the quota, which enabled a larger number of pilgrims from Tamil Nadu to perform Hajj. A total of 3,696 and 2,858 pilgrims have performed the Hajj during Hajj 2013 and 2014 respectively, the release added.
