Hajj package for 2008 declared, airfare raised by $100

Staff Correspondent

Law adviser AF Hassan Ariff said on Monday that the government was considering measures for designating Hajj management irregularities as crimes and making legal provisions for realizing compensation for the offences.

‘We are thinking of specific legal provisions for treating the irregularities in Hajj management as crimes and realizing compensation for them,’ said Ariff while responding to reporters’ questions at the secretariat.

He said punitive measures would be taken against Hajj agencies for any breach of contracts with the Hajj pilgrims. If any case is filed under Section 420 (of the Code of Criminal Procedure) against any Hajj agency for fraudulence, it will take at least five years to dispose of the matter, explained the law adviser, which is the reason for latest initiative to check incidents of deception and irregularities in Hajj management by the agencies and authorities concerned.

Now such cases will be disposed of expeditiously. ‘We have started from the right place. We are now discussing the matter with the Hajj agencies and also the authorities concerned to stop various forms of malpractice in Hajj management,’ he mentioned.

The religious affairs ministry on Sunday declared the Hajj package of 2008 for performing Hajj in December through both government and approved Hajj agencies, in which the airfare has been raised to $1,350 from $1,250 for each pilgrim.

The total charge for each balloted Hajj pilgrim ranges from Tk 1,99,240 to Tk 2,20,140 this year, and the money will have to be deposited by July 6. Duly filled application forms must be submitted to the deputy commissioners’ offices throughout the country by July 7, 2008.

It has been estimated that the total number of Hajj pilgrims will be 65,000 this year, of which 15,000 are balloted (under government arrangement).

When he was asked whether the government would frame any criminal charges against the agencies that had deceived the intending Hajj pilgrims who failed to perform Hajj, the religious affairs adviser replied in the negative, saying that the defrauded people themselves could file criminal cases against the agency owners.

Licences of the two Hajj agencies — Jebric Travels and Dulafakir Hajj Agency — have already been cancelled for irregularities and causing a lot of suffering to last year’s Hajj passengers, said ministry officials.

Ramzan Ali, owner of Jebric Travels, according to religious affairs ministry has been absconding after the Hajj agency failed to send 55 intending hajis to Saudi Arabia last year, each of whom had paid over Tk 1,70,000 for performing Hajj. Such incidents happen almost every year as no exemplary punishment has yet been meted to the defrauders.

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