Hyderabad, May 19: A total of 4,381 pilgrims were selected for Haj 2011 through ‘qurrah’ (draw of lots) held at Haj House on Wednesday.
From Hyderabad, at least 2,000 pilgrims were selected as against the earlier average of 1,200-1,400. The number is high as more people from the city fall in the reserved category which includes senior citizens aged over 70, those not selected in the draw in the last three attempts and those who were selected but could not go because of passport-related problems.
As many as 1,077 pilgrims from the twin cities fell in this category. Hyderabad’s pilgrim quota for Haj is 989. The Haj Committee had received 16,990 applications this year. “If there is an increase in the quota or cancellations, people from the waiting list will go in serial order,” said Syed Khaleeluddin Ahmed, chairman, Haj Committee. He added that attempts are being made to get additional quota of 1,000 to 1,200.
Officials said there was some resentment from representatives of Kurnool, Krishna, Guntur and Kadapa districts as the reserved category from the state’s quota was segregated before the district-wise quota was fixed. This led to reduction in the quota for some districts such as Kurnool.
This year, the quota for Andhra Pradesh has been fixed at 6,137, which includes the reserved category quota of 1,756.
-Agencies