Bhopal:Tuesday, June 9 :The Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan has urged Union government to increase quota of Haj pilgrims from the State and start Haj flights from Bhopal. The Chief Minister had sent a letter to this effect to the then Foreign Minister (now Finance Minister) Shri Pranab Mukherji and Union Civil Aviation Minister Shri Prafull Patel.
On the insistence of Madhya Pradesh Haj Committee chairman Shri Saleem Qureshi, the Chief Minister has urged the Union ministers to declare Bhopal as embarkation point and increase quota of Haj pilgrims from the state.
Shri Chouhan has said that since a large number of pilgrims from and around Bhopal go on Haj pilgrimage every year, it will be justified to start Haj flights to Mumbai from here. He said that this arrangement will facilitate Haj pilgrims from all over the state.
Shri Chouhan has urged to increase Haj quota for the state to 5000 since it is quite low as compared to the population of Muslims in Madhya Pradesh. In 2008, as many as 14 thousand applications were received which increased to over 16 thousand this year.
Chief Minister Shri Chouhan has also thanked the Union ministers for declaring Indore as embarkation point and starting flights to Mumbai from there from last year.
