Kamruzzaman Bablu :The Religious Affairs Ministry has finally decided that registration is a must within May 30 for getting Hajj pilgrim identification number this year. It has been notified in an emergency letter signed by Shahidullah Sarkar, Assistant Secretary (Hajj-02) of the Religious Affairs Ministry that the privately managed pilgrims must complete their registration within May 30. Otherwise they will not be allowed to perform Hajj this year.It says, those, who will be in the waiting list, will get an opportunity of performing Hajj this year as per their serial number of enrolment if any of the already registered pilgrims fail to go to Saudi Arabia due to non-payment of Hajj package fees, or sickness, or death or any other reasons.Saudi Arabia allotted a quota of 101,758 for Bangladeshi pilgrims for performing Hajj this year.Of those, 10,000 will perform Hajj under government management and 91,758 will go under private management. The private Hajj agencies will be allowed to send 88,204 pilgrims from the quota while the rests 3,554 persons of private quota will go to Saudi Arabia as support staff.”It had been seen in the past that some of the enrolled pilgrims finally failed to deposit their Hajj package fees due to financial constraints, unwanted sickness or even death. It creates a vacancy in the Hajj quota,” said HAAB Secretary General Sheikh Abdullah. Considering the situation, HAAB requested the government to extend the registration time.” He added that the registration would prepare a waiting list for the pilgrims. They will get scope of performing Hajj according to their serial numbers, in case of such vacancy.He said, the registration process will continue until May 30 according to the government’s previous decision. Those, who will enroll their names in the waiting list, will get priority for performing Hajj in 2017, if they failed to go Saudi Arabia this year.Earlier, an inter-ministerial meeting also decided to rearrange the Hajj agencies minimum pilgrim’s quota. Those agencies that failed to register the minimum quota of 150 pilgrims within the stipulated period will get a chance to fill their quota of pilgrims from other agencies. The highest number of pilgrims for each Hajj agency has been fixed at 293 pilgrims.The agencies that failed to fill their quota of registering sufficient pilgrims would have to submit a combined list coordinating with other agencies. Otherwise, they would fail to send pilgrims in Saudi Arabia this year. Anwar Hossain, Senior Public Relation Officer of the Religious Affairs Ministry, also told that the decisions would be maintained meticulously. There will be no extension of time after May 30. he said, Considering the situation, next Friday and Saturday the registration server will remain open from 10 am to 6.pm.According to Hajj office sources, a total of 618 pilgrims have enrolled their names to perform Hajj under government management against the quota of 10,000.
