New Delhi: In the biggest expansion in the Haj quota over the last 29 years, the Saudi Arabian government has increased India’s annual Haj quota from 1.36 lakhs to 1.70 lakh.Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that an agreement to this regard was inked by Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent charge) Naqvi with Saudi Arabia’s Haj and Umrah Minister Dr Mohammad Saleh bin Taher Benten at Jeddah, making the expansion effective from the current year.

The Saudi authorities had five-years-ago slashed quotas for foreign pilgrims coming from each country by 20 percent in view of safety of the devotees as they undertook expansion of Grand Mosque there. Accordingly, India’s quota was brought down to 1.36 lakh from nearly 1.70 lakh in 2012. The NDA government has started issuing Haj applications from January 2. The last date for submission of applications is January 24. As part of its efforts to streamline the process, the government has urged pilgrims to submit their applications online. In December last year, a new Haj website was launched which provides all necessary information to Haj pilgrims, the statement said.