New Delhi: Just two days after CNN-IBN aired a story on the Haj quota scam in the Ministry of External Affairs, ripples have been created ripples in the ministry.
CNN-IBN's D P Satish spoke to the Minister of External affairs, SM Krishna, who agreed that the ministry had made mistakes in the past. He has now promised a tamper-proof Haj quota system in the future.
"We certainly would like to make it as transparent as possible, as objective as possible. We have learnt from our past experience and I am hopeful that when next year we will go through the process, I will be able to present a process where there will be transparency, there will be objectivity," SM Krishna said.
Sources have also told CNN-IBN that the ministry is issuing a new set of guidelines based on the CNN-IBN story.
- The Ministry is slashing the quota of Alhind and other travel agencies that were favoured
- The Ministry has even put a cap on how many allocations an agency can get. The cap will be at 500. Private tour operator Alhind had earlier got about 1,700. The majority this year will be given allocations between 100-400 so no one can be favoured unduly
- The Ministry is slashing the quotas of existing operators across the board by 30 per cent
- The Ministry is handing over those quotas to newer operators, thus doubling the number of private tour operators from 293 to 593
There is certainly some action on the present and future of the transparency in Haj quotas but what remains to be seen is whether as promised, the ministry will look into its past - into irregularities by the previous tenure of the UPA under the minister who handled the quotas, E Ahamed.
The Left had on Thursday called for a probe into the quota allocation and also asked for E Ahamed's resignation. He was Minister of State for External Affairs in the previous UPA regime.
CNN-IBN had first reported that while other agencies in the list of Haj approved operators got an average of 155 passengers, Alhind got 1,700.
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