Hajj 2020: Communication Gag prompts Govt to go for manual procedure in Kashmir
5 Dariya News
Srinagar 12-Oct-2019
The ongoing communication gag in the Valley has prompted the State administration to go for the manual procedure for the Hajj pilgrimage-2020 while as the Hajj aspirants from Jammu and Ladakh will have to file their applications online.Minister for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had on last Wednesday stated that the Hajj pilgrimage process for the year 2020 will be completely online and the process for filing the Hajj forms will commence from October 10. In the backdrop of the ongoing communication gag in the Valley, the administration has decided to continue with the manual procedure, appealing the aspirants to file their Hajj forms offline.Officials told the wire service—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that it has been decided that the manual procedure will continue to be adopted for the Kashmiri Hajj aspirants due to the ongoing communication blackout.They added the Hajj aspirants for Ladakh and Jammu have been asked to file their applications via online. “The Hajj aspirants from Jammu region and Ladakh region will have to file their Hajj applications online as the communication services are functional in the duo regions,” officials said, adding that the manual procedure has been adopted only for Kashmiri Hajj aspirants.The officials further told KNO that the process for filing the Hajj applications for Kashmiri Hajj aspirants will start from October 14, adding that the aspirants above 70 years old have been asked to file their papers at Bemina Hajj house.It is worth to mention here that the local residents here aspiring to perform Hajj this year, had appealed the government not to start online procedure in Kashmir in view of the communication gag. (KNO)