NEW DELHI, June 23:
Government today promised to bring in significant improvement in facilities for Haj pilgrims and request Saudi Arabia to withdraw 20 per cent cut in India’s quota for the annual pilgrimage.
Acknowledging that there have been shortcomings in arrangement for the pilgrims, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also criticised Air India for charging Rs 1.54 lakh as ticket cost per pilgrim from those going from Srinagar against around Rs 62,800 for those who had gone from other designated airports.
Addressing the All India Annual Conference for Haj, Swaraj identified accommodation for pilgrims as a major issue and said there was a need to think about a long-term solution to the issue and indicated that government may go for having own accommodation for Indian pilgrims in Mecca and neighbouring areas.
“Can we develop some complex in the area in cooperation with Saudi Government. They can be used for Haj pilgrimage for three months and for remaining nine months, people going for Umrah and Ziyarat can stay there,” Swaraj said.
The External Affairs Minister also said there were Indian properties in Mecca before independence and government will enquire what happened to them.
“According to my knowledge, a large number of Indian properties were there in Mecca Madina before Independence, which are not there today. We need to inquire that what happened to the properties donated for Hajis,” she said, adding, “Our government will soon get it inquired.”
She said contractors, who had acted against contract or were negligent in offering services to the pilgrims in Mecca and adjoining areas, should be blacklisted and buildings should be taken from other contractors.
On cut in Haj quota from last year’s 1.70 lakh to 1.36 lakh in the current year, she said the issue will be taken up with Saudi Arabia.
“Most of the people get the opportunity to go to Mecca for Haj only once in their entire lifetime. People deposit money for years to go to Haj pilgrims. Our effort will be to make the journey of pilgrims comfortable,” Swaraj said.
The External Affairs Minister said often Haj pilgrims face difficulty due to delay or cancellation of Haj flights and asked Air India to improve services at all the 12 embarkation point given to it.
“I was told that out of 12 given to Air India, eight were given on contract to private airlines and whose aircraft were old. We will not allow that kind of risk.
“I was surprised to know that Air India had last year charged 1.54 lakh as ticket cost per pilgrim for those who had taken flight from Srinagar when the cost from other embarkation points was around Rs 62,802. It was a burden for pilgrims from Kashmir. We will try to ensure justice to them,” she said.
“There is lack of proper facilities for pilgrims in buildings in Mecca and other adjoining areas for pilgrims. We would like our consulate and Haj Committee of India to ensure all basic facilities in the buildings,” she said.
The External Affairs Minister felt the Haj Committee of India should also handle issues relating to travel of pilgrims who go to Mecca for Umrah and if required amendment in Haj Act should be examined after consulting experts.
Resolving to improve the facilities, she said, “I have seen many times that Haji goes with happiness and comes back disappointed.” (PTI)

MUMBAI, June 23:
After political rivals, the Narendra Modi government has come under fire from Shiv Sena over the rail fare hike with its oldest ally terming the move as akin to the common man being run over by train.
“Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda has in the first instance brought a steep fare hike and has run the train over the common man,” an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ said today.
Noting that people had voted Narendra Modi to power to save them from inflation, the editorial said, “However, the Railway Minister increased passenger fares by 14 per cent and freight charges by 6.5 per cent. The Mumbai suburban commuters have to face a 100 per cent rise in fares.”
Wary of the adverse fallout of the government’s decision in election-bound Maharashtra, the Sena said the Centre had given the opposition “a tool to attack us”.
“If the same hike had been brought by the Congress, those who would have bombarded it with criticism and abuses are now in government with a full majority,” it said.
“The new government should now introspect how it hurled abuses at the previous Congress regime and honestly work towards improving the efficiency of the railways,” the editorial said, adding “people expect this should be the final increase.”
Earlier, terming the fare hike as “shocking”, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had on Saturday said he will speak to Prime Minister Modi and request him to roll it back.
The measure has badly hit the commuters in Mumbai where 75 lakh people travel by the suburban railway every day, most of them using season passes, the cost of which has shot up two times or more.
The Sena, which together with BJP and other smaller allies, won 42 of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats, decimating Congress-NCP combine in the process, does not want the fallout from the unpopular move to adversely affect the alliance’s prospects in the legislative assembly elections scheduled later this year.
Latching onto the opportunity, Congress protested the hike at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and its state president Manikrao Thakre led scores of party workers in travelling ticketless to Thane by a suburban train.
Congress ministers Mohammed Naseem Khan and Varsha Gaikwad, Mumbai Congress unit president Janardan Chandurkar, legislators Kripashankar Singh, Rajhans Singh, Anant Gadgil and Haribhau Rathod were present.
On reaching Thane, Thakre said his party would launch a state-wide ‘Rail Roko’ on June 25 against the hike and intensify protests.
The BJP, he said, would have to bear the consequences of the decision to raise the fares in the assembly elections. “Rahul Gandhi had said Modi’s inflated balloon will burst and it indeed will,” he said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 23:
Seeking to expedite information sharing from the European nation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the government will write to Switzerland seeking details of Indians having unaccounted money in Swiss banks.
The Minister’s remark comes a day after a Swiss government official told that names of certain persons and entities, who have come under scanner of Swiss authorities, is being shared with India.
Jaitley said his Ministry is yet to receive official communication in this regard.
“We are today writing ourselves to the Swiss authorities with whom the Ministry has been in touch so that details with regard to whatever information the authorities have can be expedited and the cooperation between the Swiss authorities and the government of India can bring fruitful results. Our communication will be sent today itself,” Jaitley said here.
He was referring to the issue of Indians allegedly stashing unaccounted money in Swiss banks.
“News has appeared in various sections of the media quoting Swiss authorities that they are willing to actively cooperate with the government of India in giving details about Indians who hold bank accounts in the Swiss banking system,” he said.
According to the latest data published by Switzerland’s central bank SNB, Indian money in various Swiss banks rose by 43 per cent during 2013 to close to Rs 14,000 crore, including the money held directly by Indian clients and those through fiduciaries or wealth managers.
As part of its efforts to bring back black money, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its first day in office constituted a special investigative team to unearth illicit money.
Under the chairmanship of M B Shah, SIT had its first meeting on June 2. The other members of the team comprised another retired Supreme Court judge Arijit Pasayat as vice-chairman, Revenue Secretary, directors of CBI, IB, RAW and ED, the CBDT Chairman and an RBI deputy governor.
The panel has jurisdiction in cases where investigations have commenced or are waiting to be initiated or have been completed.
Swiss government has been refusing to share details about the Indians named in this ‘HSBC list’, which was stolen by a bank employee and later found its way to tax authorities in various countries including India.
Despite repeated requests from India, Switzerland had maintained that its local laws prohibit administrative assistance in matters where information has been sourced illegally, including through stolen lists.
The said ‘HSBC list’ allegedly contains names of Indians and other foreign nationals having ill-gotten wealth in Swiss unit of the global banking major.
India is one of the 36 countries with which Switzerland has signed treaties to provide administrative assistance in tax matters in accordance with international standards. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 23:
The Power Ministry wants a review of a proposal to impose anti-dumping duty on imports of solar gear because the country does not have sufficient capacity to make equipment to harness the sun’s energy.
“We have asked the Commerce and Finance ministries to re-look into the recommendations of the report…India does not have adequate manufacturing capacity to support the kind of thrust we want to give to solar. Therefore, we have appealed to them to take a view,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters here today.
“It is a short-term view since we are also looking at expanding the (solar) manufacturing base in the future,” he said.
Last month, the Commerce Ministry recommended levying anti-dumping duty on solar cells from the US, Malaysia, China and Chinese Taipei. A final view on slapping the levy to discourage imports is to be taken by the Finance Ministry.
Concluding a one-and-a-half year probe into allegations that cheap solar cells are being dumped into India, the Commerce Ministry had suggested a restrictive duty in the range of USD 0.11 to 0.81 per watt to protect the interests of domestic manufacturers from cheap imports.
India’s solar mission aims to add 20,000 MW of grid-connected solar capacity by 2022. The country’s current installed solar capacity exceeds 2,600 MW. (PTI)