UNB, Dhaka :
Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab) president Mohammad Ibrahim Bahar on Monday urged the government to reduced the Moallem fee for next year’s Hajj to Tk 30,000 as against existing Tk 1.20 lakh.
“We also urge the government to allow all airlines of the Middle East to carry the hajj pilgrims… we hope, this will reduce the sufferings of pilgrims,” he said, addressing a press conference at a city hotel.
The Haab president alleged that at least 400 pilgrims could not go to Saudi Arabia to perform this year’s holy hajj due to the mismanagement by some agencies.
He, however, urged the government to provide a second chance to the private agencies for whose mismanagement the pilgrims could not perform hajj in 2014.
Meanwhile, the aspiring hajj pilgrims under government management will have to complete online registration between January 21 and February 5, 2015 by depositing the money fixed for the purpose.
Interested pilgrims can register now submitting national ID number instead of Machine Readable Passport (MRP), Religious Affairs Minister Principal Matiur Rahman said on Sunday.
A total of 1.01 lakh people from Bangladesh will have the opportunity to perform the holy hajj next year. Of them, 10,000 will go under government management and the rest through private agencies.
The cost of two packages for performing the next hajj under government management will be Tk 3.54 lakh and Tk 2.96 lakh respectively. Parliament approved the next year’s hajj packages on December 8.
