Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday promised to ensure that the Haj House, which is under construction near Yelahanka on the outskirts of the city, would be ready by next year.
At a programme organised in connection with the departure of the first batch of pilgrims from the Haj camp at Quddus Saheb Eidgah Maidan in Benson Town, the Chief Minister said there was no dearth of funds for the construction of the Haj House. “We have earmarked Rs. 17 crore in the budget this year and the work will be expedited,” he said.
A sum of Rs. 1 crore had been set aside for the construction of a Haj House each in Gulbarga and Mangalore, the Chief Minister said. He appealed to the pilgrims to pray for the well-being of the people of Karnataka.
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R. Roshan Baig, Minister for Infrastructure Development and Haj, said he would strive to get the State’s quota of Haj pilgrims restored to at least 8,000 from next year. This year, the quota had been cut down from 7,000 to 5,193 pilgrims for Karnataka because of restrictions on the total quota for India by the Saudi Arabia government, he said.
Ministers Qamrul Islam, U.T. Khader, K.J. George and Ramalinga Reddy, Karnataka State Haj Committee chairman M.A. Mohammed and senior cleric Mufti Ashraf Ali were present.