No one will go to Hajj at government expense this year: Syeda Rizwana Hasan
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Photo: Collected
Efforts are being made to reduce the cost of Hajj, and no one will go to Hajj with government money this year, said Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Water Resources.
She said these things at a press conference organized at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Thursday (October 24) night.
Also present at the press conference were - Press Secretary to the Chief Adviser Shafiqul Alam and Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Mahfuz Alam.
Although there is a lot of criticism about performing Hajj at government expense, many people even make arrangements for it.
Every year, many people, from retired secretaries to judges, freedom fighters, politicians and government officials and employees, go to Hajj with government money.
This year (2024), the Awami League government sent 71 people to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj at a cost of Tk. 3 crore. The previous year, 23 people went to Hajj at government expense.
Earlier on January 22, 2023, State Minister for Religion Faridul Haque Khan had informed the Jatiya Sangsad that 254 people were sent for Hajj in 2022 at government expense.
He also informed the Parliament that since 2014, the government has started the program of sending a certain number of devout Muslims to Saudi Arabia for Hajj at government expense. Of these, no one was sent for Hajj in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic Corona. Apart from these two years, 1,918 people have been sent for Hajj at government expense in the last seven years.
Of these, 125 people were sent for Hajj in 2014, 268 in 2015, 283 in 2016, 334 in 2017, 340 in 2018, 314 in 2019 and 254 in 2022.
