'Haj passports will be issued without police verification'

To ease issuance of temporary passports to Haj pilgrims, the Centre has decided to do away with police verification of those planning to go to the holy city of Mecca to perform Haj.
    
The Haj Committee of India today said the decision to this effect came after two meetings in Delhi and Bangalore on June eight and ten, chaired by N Ravi, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs.
    
The issue of Haj passport for Saudi Arabia will be valid for eight months only and this will not be renewed.
    
"The police verification for Haj pilgrims has been waived off. The decision was taken keeping in mind the difficulties in issuance of passports to pilgrims in a short span of two months," Mohd Owais, the Chief Executive Officer of Haj Committee of India, told reporters here.
    
However, he said those pilgrims who would like to make their Haj passports a permanent one later will have to go through police verification.
    
Owais also said that pilgrims, who have already submitted their application forms for passport and their police verification pending till June 20, will be issued passports.
    
"If there is no adverse reports, pilgrims will get their passports," Owais said, adding the Haj Committee has received around 3.57 lakh applications this year from devotees who want to perform Haj this year. 
    
"The Haj Committee has a quota of 1.04 lakh while the private sector has a quota of 45,000. The rest is that of government quota," Owais said.
    
The decision to issue passports came in the backdrop of Saudi Arabia insisting that the pilgrims should carry international passports.
    
"We had meetings with them. But they said they wanted a uniform pattern and said they cannot change the deadline in this regard for India alone," Owais said.