NEW DELHI, Apr 16:
Frowning over the practice of politicians and bureaucrats travelling on Haj pilgrimage at Government subsidy, the Supreme Court today told the Centre that these “goodwill delegations” need to be scrapped to ensure that only genuine pilgrims are benefited.
“These goodwill delegations need to be scrapped altogether. They are no longer relevant. Even a team of 9 to 10 persons is not required,” a bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai told Attorney General G E Vahanvati.
The Apex Court made the observation after Vahanvati and Centre’s counsel Harris Beran told the bench that these goodwill delegations are sent to Haj every year to promote the country’s image as is being done by other countries.
However, the bench pointed out that the practice of sending goodwill delegations was started by India in 1967 after the Indo-Pak war as the neighbouring state used the pilgrimage to launch anti-India rhetoric.
“This necessity is no longer there. We will gradually reduce it to four or five and then scrap it altogether,” the bench said.
Earlier, the Attorney General submitted that in a bid to ensure that more pilgrims go for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the official goodwill delegations, which earlier used to comprise 30 people have over the years been pruned to 9-10 persons.
The Apex Court was hearing an appeal filed by the Centre challenging a Bombay High Court judgement, which had directed the Ministry of External Affairs to allow certain private operators to operate the services of 800 of the 11,000 pilgrims earmarked under the VIP quota subsidised by the Government.
At the earlier hearing, the bench had pulled up the Centre’s practice of “politicising” Haj by permitting official delegations to accompany the pilgrims, for which the Government offers huge subsidy, saying, “It’s a bad religious practice.”
In an affidavit, the Centre told the court that it has decided to restrict Haj pilgrimage at Government subsidy to Muslims only as a “once in a lifetime” affair as against the existing policy of “once in five years”.
It said the new guidelines have been framed to ensure that priority is given to those applicants who have never performed Haj.
“This is a major change introduced for the first time. Restrict the number of pilgrimages to a Haj applicant through HCOI (Haj Committee of India) to ‘once in a lifetime’ as against the existing ‘once in five years’. This will ensure that the Haji will benefit from Government subsidy only once in his/her lifetime. It will also ensure that priority is given to those applicants who have never performed Haj,” the Centre said.
The Government, however, refrained from disclosing the amount of subsidy being incurred by it for 2012 saying, “The exact figure in respect of the travel subsidy to the pilgrims going through Haj Committee of India for 2012 will be known after the Hajis completed their Haj journey and return to India.”
According to the Government, priority will be given to those who are in the 70 plus category and those who had unsuccessfully applied thrice earlier for the subsidy.
The Apex Court earlier expressed its dismay at the practice of sending official delegations to accompany the pilgrims and had asked the Centre to furnish entire details regarding Haj subsidy, as also to the criteria adopted. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 16:
Air India has decided to introduce two additional flights for Jammu and Srinagar from the National Capital to cater to the heavy rush of tourists going to J&K during summer.
“The new flights between Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Srinagar sectors would remain operational between April 20 and June 15 in addition to scheduled daily flights,” an Air India spokesperson said.
This has been done to meet the growing demand of seats in forthcoming summer holidays and LTC passenger rush, he added.
From April 20, Air India would be offering 3,052 seats per week from Delhi to Jammu and back by operating an additional flight AI 9621 that would leave Delhi at 7:00 AM and arriving Jammu at 8:15 AM. In return, AI 9622 would leave from Jammu at 7:45 AM and arrive Delhi at 10 AM, the official said.
On Delhi-Srinagar-Delhi sector, the national carrier would be operating an additional direct flight AI 9623 that would leave Delhi at 5:55 AM and reach Srinagar at 7:15 AM.
“In its return, AI 9624 would leave from Srinagar at 7:45 AM and arrive Delhi at 9:05 AM,” he added. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 16:
The trial against a close aide of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and three others for allegedly running a hawala racket to fund terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in J&K could not begin today as no prosecution witness appeared in the court.
The failure of prosecution witnesses to appear before the court forced District Judge (DJ) H S Sharma to defer the commencement of trial to Tuesday.
The court on March 3 had framed charges against Ghulam Mohd Bhat, alleged to be a close aide of Geelani, Mohd Siddiq Ganai, Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmed Dagga under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) last year had filed chargesheet against the four accused, indicting them for procuring over Rs 4.57 crore from Pakistan through hawala channels within three years after 2008 for funding the terrorist activities in the Valley.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police, on January 22 last year, had arrested Srinagar-based lawyer Bhat, Ganai, Liloo and Dagga from Jammu and Kashmir on a tip-off that they were carrying hawala money, allegedly meant for the terror outfit. It had also recovered Rs 21.20 lakh from them.
The case was later handed over to the NIA and during the probe, the NIA as well as the police had questioned Geelani, who had reportedly told the investigators that he was receiving funds from various sources but had no links with Bhat in the hawala dealings.
The NIA had said that funds through hawala channels were being sent to Jammu and Kashmir for funding terror acts there and Pakistan-based Maqbool Pandit, a member of banned Hizbul Mujahideen and Aizaz Maqbool Bhat, presently in Saudi Arabia, were the key accused behind it.
The NIA in its charge sheet had alleged that huge funds were collected at various places in Delhi and one of the accused, Mohd Sidiq Ganai was in touch with ISI operatives Major Iqbal, an accused charge-sheeted for carrying out various terror strikes including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and Col Abdullah, for generating fund.
The NIA had analysed “intercepted call records” of various accused, based in Delhi as well as in Pakistan.
It had said that Ganai, identified as an active member of People’s League, a constituent of Hurriyat led by Geelani, had gone to Pakistan in 1998 through Wagah border on Indian travel document and returned via Nepal on a Pakistani passport.
Detailing their modus operandi, the NIA had said Ganai developed a close relationship with Delhi-based Raj Kumar and his brother-in-law Rajeev Nankani and motivated them to collect money on their behalf from hawala operatives here.
“Between November 2008 to October 2010, Raj Kumar alone collected Rs 2.25 crore in various instalments from hawala operators here,” the charge sheet had said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 16:
United by their opposition to the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre, Chief Ministers of Gujarat and Odisha, Narendra Modi and Navin Patnaik, today met their Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa here to mount pressure against the Centre’s move.
Modi and Patnaik met Jayalalithaa at the Tamil Nadu House separately after attending the Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Patnaik was the first to meet Jayalalithaa and the two were closeted for over 25 minutes. After the meeting, Patnaik refused to divulge what transpired at the meeting, merely saying it was a courtesy call as Jayal lithaa is an “old family friend of my father.”
Soon after, Modi met Jayalalithaa for 40 minutes and refused to speak to the waiting media. Jayalalithaa also did not speak to the media.
All the three leaders have been against the setting up of NCTC and have expressed their displeasure in public several times. Jayalalithaa and Modi had written to Singh in this regard.
There was no official word on Jayalalithaa’s meetings with Modi and Patnaik. However, it is understood that the leaders discussed a joint strategy to target the Centre on NCTC and various other issues.
The meeting assumes significance as non-Congress governments in states are opposing the creation of a counter terrorism centre and proposed amendments to the BSF Act, maintaining that the two infringe upon the states’ rights in a federal set up.
Earlier, at the meeting, Jayalalithaa warned against an “emerging pattern” wherein the state’s powers are “abrogated” by the Centre through passage of bills and accused it of showing “scant respect” for State Governments.
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was also scheduled to meet Jayalalithaa, but could not make it as he got delayed at the conference.
Expressing similar sentiments, Modi criticised the Centre for its “non-consultative” approach with the state governments on key security issues and accused it of creating “state within state” by bringing amendments to RPF Act, BSF Act which take away powers from the state police and meddling with subjects under the state list.
In his address, Patnaik sought urgent consultations between the Centre and the states over issues like the NCTC, saying any delay would affect handling of law and order. (PTI)