NEW DELHI, 10 September — Haj organizers in the capital say this city desperately needs a building to put up Haj pilgrims coming from five states on their way to Saudi Arabia every year.
"We face lots of difficulties every year as we don’t have a building of our own. Pilgrims boarding flights from Delhi have to stay with their relatives or in hotels," Abdul Sami Salmani, chairman of the Delhi Haj Committee, said.
"We also pitch tents in a public park in front of our office where a number of people coming from different states stay for few days before going for the Haj."
The committee, which spends 15,000-18,000 rupees on the temporary arrangements every year, works out of a slum department office at Turkman Gate in central Delhi and has to vacate the premises often. "We urgently require our own building because the number of people going for Haj is increasing every year," Salmani said. This year some 15,000 people took their flights to Saudi Arabia from New Delhi and the authorities here are expecting some 20,000 pilgrims for the Haj pilgrimage in February-March next year.
Muslim pilgrims from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, apart from this city, go through the Delhi Haj Committee, one among 27 state committees that work under the Bombay-based Central Haj Committee, which supervises the pilgrimage.
"We are wasting money on temporary arrangements. These expenses could be saved if we had our own building where the pilgrims could stay," said Salmani.
The committee said though the city government had for the first time assured an annual grant of five million rupees, it is yet to be formalized.
