Case against alleged corruption in selecting Hajj travel agencies, awarding Hajj quota

Wednesday, 17 July 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

An appeal case has been filed by the affected thirty Hajj travel agencies at the high court on the 12 July 2013. According to this a High Court decision given in 2012 to follow the correct criteria in selecting suitable travel agencies based on a points system. The Court in 2012 directed the respondents to set up a committee headed by the Director of Muslim Cultural Affairs. They must conduct

interviews for applied travel agencies and find out the suitability of the agencies by awarding points for the following; the facilities available with agencies and the past experience in guiding the Hajj pilgrims, the merit and demerits and any complaints made by the last year hajj pilgrims. However these criteria have been ignored and not followed by the interview board and instead awarded the hajj quota to selected agencies that had not appeared for the interview with preference given to political supporters of the Minister. Due to this, genuine travel agencies have been badly affected. About 30 hajj travel agencies joined together and filed a case against the selection at the High Court of Colombo and also held several protests and hartals at the Jummah Mosque.