QRT to address grievances of Hajis from next year: Ansari
'This year during Haj, I received some complaints about the accommodation in tents in Mina. I ensured all the issues were resolved within hours even as I personally monitored the situation round the clock. However, from next year, we will form a QRT that will oversee the arrangements and provide prompt solutions to any problems faced by Hajis,' said Ansari, who also serves as the chairman of the State Haj Committee, while speaking to HT.
Ansari, who will receive the first batch of U.P's Haj pilgrims arriving from Jeddah to Lucknow at around 12:35 am on Thursday via Air India flight (SV3106), said, 'It's a matter of joy that Hajis will start returning on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. I will also seek their suggestions to improve the process from next year.'
This year, over 5,000 Haj pilgrims departed from the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow, while others left from Delhi Airport. Earlier, on April 29, a bus ferrying Haj pilgrims was flagged off by cabinet minister OP Rajbhar and Ansari at the Haj House in Lucknow. A total of 15,513 people from U.P. had applied for Haj this year, and all were granted approval.
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If there can be over one lakh alleged 'fake' voters in just one assembly constituency, potentially deleting 65 lakh voters from the Bihar list hardly sounds unreasonable. Rahul Gandhi's 'atom bomb' provides us with the best justification for a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls—a process that the Congress and most opposition parties have opposed in Bihar. Speaking in Bengaluru on Thursday, 7 August, he provided what he claimed was evidence proving the existence of over one lakh fake voters in Mahadevapura in Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency. Re-examining fake voters claim Gandhi's broader claim, that the Bengaluru Central result was tantamount to vote-stealing, must be taken with a pinch of salt. He picked the one constituency with a significant number of Muslim voters, and polarisation and counter-polarisation are normal here. He must re-examine his premises for several reasons. 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She also reminded block-level officers doing the Commission's work that they are state employees, and not the Election Commission's, which amounts to intimidation of staff working temporarily for the Commission. The Election Commission cannot be expected to produce a foolproof list if state governments have the power to threaten officials working for the Commission. What is good about Rahul Gandhi's 'atom bomb' is that it has alerted us to the possibility of fake voters and how they may tilt close contests. However, nothing can be achieved by pretending that this is solely the work of the BJP or the Election Commission. All parties are complicit in this fraud, and should fix things while they can still be fixed. The Election Commission and the Modi government would do well to take heed and act instead of merely scoring political points against the Gandhi scion. R Jagannathan is the former editorial director, Swarajya magazine. He tweets @TheJaggi. Views are personal. (Edited by Ratan Priya)
