Srinagar: Advisor to Governor, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, today chaired a high level meeting of police and civil administration to give final shape to the arrangements for Hajj-2019. The Advisor emphasized on making the entire arrangements an error-free exercise for the convenience of the pilgrims.
The meeting was attended by senior officials of civil and police administration including Commissioner Secretary Revenue Shahid Anayatullah, Divisional Commissioner Jammu Sanjeev Verma, DIG, Central Kashmir Range, V.K Birdi, Additional Commissioner Kashmir Tasaduq Hussain Mir, CEO State Hajj Committee Abdul Salam Mir, MD JKSRTC Bilal Ahmad Bhat, RTO Kashmir Akramullah Tak, SSP Srinagar Dr Haseeb Mughal, SSP Traffic Tahir Gilani, SSP Security Imtiyaz Hussain, SSP Budgam Amod Ashok, SSP AHJ Srinagar Harmeet Singh, Chief Engineers of PWD, PDD and PHE departments, Assistant Director Information Aslam Khan besides other officials of Health, Tourism, telecommunication, Banking and Municipality.
Commissioner Secretary Revenue informed the meeting that all the arrangements for the smooth and successful conduct of Hajj-2019 has been put in place. He also revealed that every concerned agency has been directed to put all the necessary arrangements in place to make this annual affair faultless.
CEO, State Hajj Committee (SHC) briefed the meeting that this year a total of 11527 pilgrims are taking this holy journey from the state. These also include 1351 from Jammu and 107 from Ladakh division. He further elaborated that 10759 pilgrims would embark from Srinagar and 768 from Delhi.
The CEO also said that necessary arrangements for boarding and lodging has been made for the pilgrims at Haj House Srinagar, that has a capacity to house around 250 persons.
Divisional Commissioner Jammu informed the meet that transport facilities have been arranged for ferrying the pilgrims to Srinagar from all the districts of Jammu division. It was also given in the meeting that necessary vaccination of Hajjis has been started today for Srinagar district and in next 3 days it would be completed throughout the state.
The Advisor was informed that flights taking pilgrims would start leaving Srinagar from 4th of July till 29th of the month. The representative of the Air service informed that each day 2 flights would be operated for the first 17 days and thereafter 4 flights a day would be operated till 29th of the month. All the flights are destined to Medina and Jeddah respectively as given out during the meeting.
Ganai urged the officials that as most of pilgrims are elderly people, so they need to be patiently guided and counselled. He also advised for using technological interventions like social or mass media, for creating awareness, wherever there is the scope so that people going on Hajj would not overload themselves and intelligently learn about the practices they have to go through at Saudi Arabia.
The Advisor exhorted to publish the necessary advisories related to the ‘health and nutrition’ for the well being of the pilgrims. He suggested preparing them in consultation with health professionals and repeatedly publicize these the same in the local media.
Ganai also urged the police and civil administrators to work in synergy and assist the pilgrims with courtesy till the last pilgrim leaves the state. He suggested for keeping contingency plans ready in case of weather vagaries so that pilgrims do not suffer.
Advisor was informed that proper arrangements for round the clock electricity, drinking water, cleanliness and internet connectivity have already been put in place by the respective departments. In addition, the meeting was apprised that necessary security arrangements have also been made to ensure smooth and hassle free journey of the pilgrims.
