First flight for Haj this year takes off

Jaipur: The first flight this year for Haj pilgrims took off from Sanganer airport on Sunday with 253 passengers. The number of applicants for Haj have reduced significantly this year. “There was just a waiting list of 17 persons. All of them who were in the waiting list have been accommodated as some applicants have cancelled their application due to medical and personal reasons,” said Mehmood Ali Khan, executive officer, Rajasthan State Haj Committee. Since the past few years number of Haj applicants crossed 10,000 while the allotted quota was less than half. In 2022, the allotted quota was 5,125 but 13,942 had applied for it and 5,121 had gone for Haj against the allotted quota of 5,125. “This year, the government made some changes, which affected the number of applications received. Earlier, there was a provision that if a person applied for three years and his name was not among selected applicants, the person would automatically be selected in the fourth year. This is the reason why we received more applications in the past,” he said. Daily one flight will take off till May 27 and then for the next 10 days, two flights daily will take off from Jaipur. A total of 27 flights will be used for around 6,000 Haj pilgrims. Due to Covid-19, the embarkation points were reduced by the Centre last year and pilgrims from Rajasthan had to take the flight from New Delhi.
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