UP CM demands more Haj quota

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday demanded that the Centre should increase quota of Haj pilgrims from the state.

"The chief minister has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with a request that the quota of UP should be increased and maintained at the last year's level when 32,532 pilgrims went for Haj," an official spokesman said.

 The chief minister said that Haj was the most important pilgrimage for Muslims and of the total pilgrims from the country around one-fourth were from Uttar Pradesh.

He said a quota of 27,000 was initially allotted to UP and it was increased to 32,532 pilgrims. Yadav said this year the Haj Committee of India has allotted a quota of 25,359 to the state, which was increased by 4,029 on June 1.

"Thus the total quota of Uttar  Pradesh is 29,388 which is 3,144 less that the last year quota of 32,532," the letter said.

The spokesman said that on May 7 chairman of UP Haj Committee Mohd Azam Khan wrote a letter to Chairperson of Haj Committee of India Mohsina Kidwai to increase the number of pilgrims to at least last year's quota of 32,532, but there has been no response.

The letter said that the state committee received 36,754 applications this year and after lottery on May 15 11,360 applicants were in the waiting list.