Hassan Cheruppa Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — A comprehensive guide for Haj pilgrims in Malayalam was released in Jeddah on Thursday. Mohammed Alungal, chairman and managing director of Al Abeer Medical Group, released the guide by giving a copy to K.P. Mohammed Kutty, chairman of the Kerala-state owned Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants (ODEPC). V.K. Hamza Abbas, editor in chief of Gulf Madhyamam, presided over the function. The 33-page guide was a publication of Gulf Madhyamam daily with the funding of Al-Abeer Group. The guide contains details of Indian Haj Mission's preparations and arrangements, as well as important phone numbers related to Haj services in Makkah, Madinah and the Jeddah Haj Terminal. Addressing the gathering, Alungal said the guide was prepared in a way to benefit the pilgrims to have all the relevant guidelines during their stay in Makkah and Madinah, in addition to a synopsis of the rituals of Haj. “The guide will help the pilgrims on performing the rituals in an almost perfect and flawless way,” he said. In his speech, Abbas highlighted the significance of the annual pilgrimage of Haj as a unique event to uphold the principles of universal brotherhood and love of humanity. “Pilgrims, who represent Muslims from all over the world, converge at the plains of Arafat and immerse in prayers for their salvation as well as for global peace,” he said. Referring to the exploitation of pilgrims by private tour operators, and corruption involved while allocating quotas for private pilgrims in an unscrupulous way, he called for delinking the portfolio of Haj affairs from India's Ministry of External Affairs and set up a separate Ministry for Haj. “The government of India's decision to reduce the private quota to less than one-third following a 20 percent cut in quota of foreign pilgrims by Saudi Arabia this year is a very good move in the right direction. This enabled more pilgrims to perform Haj at reasonable rates under Central Haj Committee,” he said while welcoming the Supreme Court's intervention to rein in private groups from exploiting pilgrims. Echoing the same view, Mohammed Kutty, who is also president of the Saudi national committee of Kerala Muslim Cultural Center, said that a number of private Haj groups are exploiting pilgrims in certain respects even after charging a higher rate from them. Rashid Khan, marketing manager of Gulf Madhyamam-Saudi Arabia, said that they have started delivering Haj guides to all domestic, Gulf and foreign Keralite pilgrims free of cost. Al Abeer Group CEO Jabir Valiakath attended the function in which the Group's Media Coordinator Muhammad Emran welcomed the gathering.
