MINA: To facilitate pilgrims charging their mobile batteries, authorities have set up several points at various places in Mina. But some innovative pilgrims are making other uses of this facility — they are making tea. “One cup of tea is being sold for SR2, which means SR24 for my group of 12 whenever we drink tea. The cost is high and beyond our reach so we are making tea at the battery charging point and saving money,” said Abdullah Rasmi, a Yemeni pilgrim.
Others, however, were not only making tea but selling it at a lower price. Some enterprising south Asians and Arabs were selling it for SR1 per cup. They are making quick profits as they are not sure when they will be apprehended by the municipality or police officials.
“The power point is for charging mobile batteries, but there are many points and we are using only those which nobody needs for charging. Anyway, if somebody wants to charge a phone, we remove our kettle,” Rasmi pointed out.
But some of the pilgrims who want to charge their batteries were not convinced. “They have made these points their own property. I have been waiting for the last 15-20 minutes and they keep heating one kettle after another. They are making money from a free government service. The authorities must stop them,” said Baker Habaddi. Others were also of the same opinion.
A pilgrim from Riyadh, Fawaz Al-Ghamdi, said that due to the tea-makers, the battery-charging service had ceased to exist. There is also the question of safety. The power points are not meant to take numbers of electric kettles; they are for charging mobile phone batteries and they are overloaded when used for making tea which can cause fire. “Think of the panic if there were a fire in a crowded place like this! These people do not think of safety but only of their profits, regardless if they come at a great cost to somebody else,” Al-Ghamdi said.
Pilgrims say the quality of the tea made at the charging points is better than that from normal tea shops. Bangladeshi pilgrim Hossain Ismail said, “Here they are making tea in the traditional way by boiling water and tea together properly to enhance its flavor. We are used to tea made this way.”
