The State Haj Committee has asked the Centre to consider those selected for Haj this year from the State for the next year’s pilgrimage without a draw of lots. None from the country will be able to perform Haj this year as Saudi Arabia has restricted this year’s pilgrimage only to those who are currently in the kingdom.
State Haj Committee chairman C. Mohammed Faizy said on Thursday that they expected a favourable response from the Centre to their demand.
As many as 10,834 aspirants, including 6,399 women, were selected for the pilgrimage out of 26,064 applicants from Kerala this year. Their passports were handed over to the Haj panel. Arrangements were in place to kick-start the pilgrimage process when the pandemic wreaked havoc.
Mr. Faizy said that the selected would be refunded soon. The applicants had paid the Haj panel ₹2.01 lakh in two instalments. “It will be refunded to their bank accounts,” said Mr. Faizy. “If the bank account given at the time of application has changed, then the applicants should mail the new account details to account.hci@gov.in,” he said.
He said no special application would be needed to get the cash and passports back. “It will take some time. But we will make sure that the passports are returned to the applicants by maintaining the COVID-19 protocol” said Mr. Faizy.
