Government of India (GOI) and Saudi Arabia annually sign a bilateral Haj Agreement in which the overall Haj Quota for India for the year is specified. For Haj 2012, Government of Saudi Arabia allocated 1,70,000 Haj seats to India - 1,25,000 for pilgrims going through the Haj Committee of India (HCOI) and 45,000 for pilgrims facilitated by Private Tour Operators (PTOs). The HCOI Haj quota is distributed among States/ Union Territories (UT) in proportion to their Muslim population. As per the Order dated July 23, 2012 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, 300 seats have been allocated for discretionary allocation. Distribution of these 300 seats as per the Order is limited to - 100 seats for allotment on recommendation of the Hon’ble President, 75 each on recommendations by the Vice-President and Prime Minister and 50 by the External Affairs Minister.
The overall Quota is decided at the time of signing the annual bilateral Haj Agreement. This year the Agreement was signed on 14.3.2012.
GOI requests the Saudi authorities every year for additional quota to accommodate, even if partially, the excess applications received by HCOI. In 2010 & 2011, 10,000 additional seats were released at GOI’s request by the Saudi authorities and were distributed through the HCOI to States/ UTs with applications in excess of allocated quota.
Allocation of Haj seats to each State/Union Territory is done by the Haj Committee of India in proportion to the Muslim population in each State/U.T. vis-a-vis the national population of Muslims as per 2001 Census. All States/U.T. have been allocated their quota on the basis of this formula. However, following the order dated July 23, 2012 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, some more seats have become available. These seats will be distributed by HCOI among States/UTs, with applications in excess of their quota, in proportion to their Muslim population. UP and MP will get their due shares from these surplus seats.
Details of allocation of seats to each State/Union Territory for Haj-2012 are as follows:
STATE-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF QUOTA | |||||
FOR THE PILGRIMS OF HAJ -2012 AS PER 2001 CENSUS | |||||
Sr.# | Name of States/Union Territory | Final Quota (*) | |||
1 | Andaman & Nicobar (UT) | 28 | |||
2 | Andhra Pradesh | 6680 | |||
3 | Assam | 3586 | |||
4 | Bihar | 6662 | |||
5 | Chandigarh (UT) | 34 | |||
6 | Chhattisgarh | 392 | |||
7 | Dadra Nagar Haveli (UT) | 6 | |||
8 | Daman & Diu (UT) | 12 | |||
9 | Delhi (NCT) | 1552 | |||
10 | Goa | 88 | |||
11 | Gujarat | 4391 | |||
12 | Himachal Pradesh | 114 | |||
13 | Haryana | 1170 | |||
14 | Jammu & Kashmir | 6494 | |||
15 | Jharkhand | 3504 | |||
16 | Karnataka | 6179 | |||
17 | Kerala | 7518 | |||
18 | Lakshadweep (UT) | 55 | |||
19 | Madhya Pradesh | 3672 | |||
20 | Maharashtra | 9819 | |||
21 | Manipur | 183 | |||
22 | Orissa | 729 | |||
23 | Pondicherry (UT) | 57 | |||
24 | Punjab | 365 | |||
25 | Rajasthan | 4578 | |||
26 | Tamil Nadu | 3318 | |||
27 | Tripura | 63 | |||
28 | Uttar Pradesh | 29387 | |||
29 | Uttarakhand | 967 | |||
30 | West Bengal | 12397 | |||
Total | 114000 | ||||
(*) | Original Quota + surrendered quota and cancellation of repeaters | ||||
of five States. | |||||
This information was given by the Minister of State for External Affairs Shri E. Ahamed in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
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