Govt to reduce Hajj package cost 115,393 pilgrims complete regn

Staff Reporter :
The government is contemplating to reduce the Hajj package cost a bit. The Religious Affairs Ministry has already requested the Saudi government to re-consider this year’s Hajj cost.
State Minister for Religious Affairs Faridul Haq Khan said on Tuesday while addressing an ‘intra- religious dialogue’ at the collectorate conference room.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,05,568 pilgrims have completed their registration under private management, while 9,825 under government arrangement to perform Hajj this year.
“We requested the Saudi government to lessen the cost of hajj packages and an announcement will come from the government on Wednesday in this regard,” Faridul Haq Khan said.
According to the State Minister, the Saudi government increased the cost by around Tk one lakh for each pilgrim as they added some new facilities for hajj pilgrims to the previous ones.
I am going to Saudi Arabia now to rent the house for Hajj pilgrims there and I am not aware regarding any decision of the ministry,” Additional Secretary (Hajj) of the Religious Affairs Ministry Md. Matiul Islam told this correspondent.
“A total of 1,15,393 have registered their names out of 1,27,198 pilgrims both government and non-government management. We hope more people will complete their registration ,” Deputy Secretary (Hajj) of the Religious Affairs Ministry Abul Kashem Muhammad Shaheen said.
On February 1, the government fixed Tk 6,83,018 as hajj cost for each pilgrim which was around Tk1.61 lakh more than the past year.
The increased hajj cost drew huge criticism as it is higher than that of the neighbouring countries.
Of them, an amount of Tk1,97,797 was fixed as airfare for each passenger.
The High Court on 14 March questioned how common people will perform hajj at the cost of the package set by the government.
It questioned, “Why doesn’t the government allocate budgets for the hajj like other countries in the world?”
The High Court Bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Mohammad Ali came up with this observation while hearing a writ petition over revising the hajj package offered by the government for this year.
The HC asked the authorities concerned to take initiative to cut the hajj cost following a hearing on the writ petition on 15 March.
On 17 March, the Ministry of Religious Affairs gave directives to the authorities concerned to rationally reduce the airfare of Biman.
On 19 March, Biman Bangladesh Airlines Managing Director Shafiul Azim said there is no scope to reduce the fare of hajj flights this year.