What is the religious affairs ministry doing?

It is very sickening to read reports on the suffering of cheated Hajj pilgrims every year. Surprisingly, the authorities concerned, including the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB), are indifferent to the anomalies. This year, too, many Hajj agencies have already started charging the pilgrims high prices for air tickets.

This year, 127,198 pilgrims are expected to take the pilgrimage to perform Hajj. Among them, 120,000 are supposed to go on private arrangements while 7,198 would go under the supervision of the government. The Hajj flights are scheduled to begin on 4 July.

When the government set the price for each ticket at Tk 128,000, we thought no agencies would make the pilgrims pay exorbitant fares. However, we hear many agencies have charged the pilgrims Tk 15,000 to 30,000 more.    

An official of HAAB has admitted that the agencies charge the pilgrims over Tk 10 million in extra every year. A mobile court of RAB in a drive on Tuesday handed fines of Tk 3 million to three agencies that had been charging Tk 15,000 to Tk 30,000 extra for each ticket. Legal actions should be taken against all the agencies that have been cheating the Hajj pilgrims this way.

It can be mentioned here that the expenses to go on a Hajj pilgrimage has been increasing every year. The government has set the price at Tk 418,500 for Package-1 this year while for Package-2 it is Tk 300,044. The prices last year was Tk 397,929 and Tk 319,355 for the packages respectively. The government said the expenses went up because the Saudi government has increased rental and other fees by Tk 24,980.  

As per the deal, half of the pilgrims were to fly on Biman Bangladesh Airlines while half were to fly on Saudia Airlines. Every agency was to get 300 tickets, but we have come to know that the Saudia Airlines had given the agencies more tickets. Some of the agencies have sold the higher priced tickets to the pilgrims, telling them that the fare might increase afterwards. Some of the agencies just vanished after taking money from the pilgrims as well. This is one of the gravest crimes, but the ministry have turned a blind eye.

The religion says that it is Farz for the affluent to perform Hajj. But a number of agencies make illegal money cheating the pilgrims every year. We expect the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the law enforcement agencies to intervene and make sure no more pilgrims are being cheated by unscrupulous agencies.