NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, MARCH 18
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday reiterated his plea to the Centre to take steps to re-designate Chennai as an embarkation point for the Haj pilgrims this year.
Recalling his November 2021 letter addressed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting to designate Chennai as an embarkation point for Haj 2022, the Chief Minister said every year over 4,000 Haj pilgrims from Tamil Nadu proceed on the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia from Chennai.
During Haj 2019, more than 4,500 pilgrims from Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andaman & Nicobar Islands undertook the Haj from Chennai.
I've written to Hon'ble @naqvimukhtar reminding him of my previous letter to Hon'ble @PMOIndia and requested him to re-designate Chennai as an embarkation point for Haj 2022, considering the convenience of the Haj pilgrims from TN and neighbouring states. pic.twitter.com/rsXmTLH0HE
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) March 17, 2022
In a letter addressed to Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday, the CM said pilgrims from Tamil Nadu are made to travel over 700 km to Cochin for their pilgrimage. They had to face hardships and incur additional costs after the Haj Committee of India reduced the embarkation points to 10 from 21 while designating Cochin as embarkation point for the pilgrims from Tamil Nadu (due to the pandemic).
“Further, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has relaxed all COVID-19 related restrictions for international pilgrims. Therefore, the reduction in the number of embarkation points can be reconsidered,” the Chief Minister said.
Several representations were also being received from members of the community in this regard. Hence, he requested the Union Minister to consider the convenience of Haj pilgrims from Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states and take urgent action to re-designate Chennai as an embarkation point for Haj 2022.
