Multi-million fraud with Hajis

Even the Haj is not safe from frauds. The faith with which Muslims go to this sacred pilgrimage is being used to dupe them. Hi Time has learnt that on this Haj alone, frauds amounting to millions of rupees were done, both by people within India and the Saudis.
News of fresh scandals is percolating down, as more plains carrying Hajis return from Jeddah, the Saudi capital.
Zaheer Zaidi, associated with a leading travel agency in Delhi, who has just returned from Haj, revealed to Hi Time how even fake Tashrihs were sold by the apex authority of Saudi government – Mossisa – with no proper arrangement for stay for the Hajis. Tashrihs are the permits granted by the Mossisa after proper scrutiny of residential facilities, including fire-fighting equipments, safety and general amenities, where the Hajis are to say. Without proper Tashrihs, visas for Haj are not issued. The Hajis who went to Makkah with Tashrihs this year found to their surprise that the addresses on which residential permits were issued were not in existence. Finally, such Hajis had to look for other accommodation, at far off places.
Moreover, it is being said that the fake Tashrihs were sold at 350 riyals each. Considering the fact that lakhs of Hajis go on Haj and the going rate for riyal is around Rs. 12 per riyal, the total amount of illicit deal can well be gauged.
Buzz was also circulating among the Hajis, while on Haj, particularly among the tour operators, that of the total quota of Tashrihs that was sent to Ministry of External Affairs, the minister distributed a good number (1700 as per the rumours) among his relatives, thereby leading to a situation where there were less permits for visas and more Hajis standing in queue to go. Resultantly, tour operators were left with no choice but to purchase the Tashrihs at higher prices, at times from these relatives of the Minister himself, and the consequent higher charges were passed on to the Hajis. Hi Time has learnt that while the visa (along with the Tashrih and moallim fee) was costing around Rs. 12,000 each, it was sold to the Hajis for price ranging from Rs. 20,000 onward. Consequently, the tour operators charged more this time, owing to there being more Hajis and lesser visas available for them.
As if this was not enough, a travel agency, named Royal Tours and Travels, duped more than 100 unsuspecting village-folks and ran off with the money they had laboriously collected to go on pilgrimage. Located at Rustamnagar under the Saadatganj police station, the agency, run by Intezaar Mehdi as the co-ordinator and Naaz Naqvi - the patron - collected Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 1,20,000 from people and even set December 14 as the date of leaving Lucknow for Delhi by Neelanchal Express. Bidding adieu to their near and dear ones, the Haj aspirants reached the station with their relatives, only to find that there were no reservations on train. The names of 36 members of agency’s committee were given on the payment slip, some of whom are influential people of the society. However, when these people were contacted they said their names were put on the slip without their permission. When asked why they didn’t object when the print campaign in various Urdu newspapers was being carried out and their names were even printed on the brochures, they had no reply to give. A lot many of the mobile numbers given on brochures were found to be switched off. An FIR has been registered in this connection and SSP, Lucknow has promised that the culprits will be nabbed soon. But perhaps because some of the respected names of the community are involved, the police has till now refrained from taking action against all those whose names figured on the brochures.
Hi Time enquiries have revealed that this is not the first case that Intezaar Mehdi has duped people on Haj. He was running a travel agency by the name of BBC Travels in Delhi till a few years and had to close shop when he was rounded up by the Hajis when he tried to sell airline ticket with fake ‘OK’ stamp. He still owes money to several people and companies in Delhi.
A short while ago, a leading TV channel too had brought to light the illicit deals which people connected with Haj committee were doing for sending the Hajis. This included even selling the application form for a price, given free otherwise, and also promising names in lottery for tour groups. Some of the members of the Haj committee were removed from their positions consequent to this exposure.
Hi Time’s revelations further prove that all sort of illicit and shady deals are being done in the name of Haj, by people whose sole wish is to earn, even if it means earning from the hard-saved money for the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage of Haj. But with names of certain respected figures, prominent Saudi authorities, the Haj cell and even the minister for external affairs coming in picture, it remains to be seen to what extent action will be taken.

Somnath Chatterjee Eyeing President’s Post; BJP the main roadblock

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee is now eyeing the coveted post of the President of India. If there is any roadblock that is likely to scuttle his Presidential ambition, it is the BJP.
Hi Time Express has learnt that the chief motive behind complaint of Speaker’s “highhandedness and partisan” attitude in conducting business by BJP and NDA leaders has become more focused and categorical after the word leaked out that the CPI (M) would like Chatterjee to occupy Rashtrapati Bhawan in May 2007, when President APJ Abdul Kalam retires. The idea of the main Opposition party is to create so much controversy around Chatterjee's personality that he is not taken to be most suitable candidate by the Congress and other UPA allies for the post of Head of the State. The BJP has already backed President Kalam for a second term in office.
The President office is held to be apolitical and non-partisan. The party leadership also feels that Chatterjee himself might back off from contesting the topmost constitutional post if he feels that he does not have support from a cross-section of the political spectrum. In a rare breach of protocol, former PM AB Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition LK Advani have gone on record against conduct of Chatterjee. The NDA decided to boycott daily meetings chaired by the Speaker at his office.
Sources close to the Speaker are fully aware of the BJP's gameplan. "Their campaign against him is calculated to tarnish his image and eliminate him from the Presidential race. The BJP can never digest a communist occupying the Rashtrapati Bhavan," they said, even as the saffron party hinted that it would back the incumbent president APJ Abdul Kalam for a second term.
However, UPA has a different take on the issue. Strongly disapproving of BJP decision to boycott Speaker's meetings, parliamentary affairs minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said the BJP is trying to drive a wedge between the UPA and the Speaker. "They are trying to isolate the Speaker from the UPA, but they will not succeed," he said. Dasmunshi said sometimes Chatterjee had gone "beyond" to give an opportunity to the opposition on many counts. "I feel that the Speaker is most accomodative. Sometimes, he is even acting on his own to accomodate the opposition and other members to allow them to raise issues without consulting the government," he said.
In his bid to puncture BJP argument, an official in the Speaker's office said there were occasions earlier when the House transacted business amidst din. During monsoon session Rajya Sabha chairperson Bhairon Singh Shekawat, who is senior BJP leader, had conducted business when the House was in disorder and there were no protests from the saffron camp, he said.
"They are targeting an individual for reasons they know best. There are 38 parties in the Lok Sabha and if BJP's logic that if there is din no business should be transacted, then a MP or a group of them could sabotage Parliament proceedings," he said adding that the Speaker had allowed as many as seven adjournment motions moved by the Opposition during the last two-and-a-half years as against a total four during the six-year NDA rule.
Other than BJP’s efforts to scuttle the CPI(M)’s plan, things were mostly favourable for Chatterjee in the coalition Government. With the Congress direly needing the support of the Left for continuance in office for another two years or so and several small and regional parties already on its side, it was more or less decided that they would not have come out openly against Chatterjee’s candidature. That is why BJP was left with no choice but to openly attack the Lok Sabha speaker.