Chennai: The Prince of Arcot, Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, who led the two-member Government of India’s Hajj Goodwill Delegation – 2019 (HGD) to the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), submitted a detailed six-page report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He thanked the Prime Minister for having nominated him as the leader of the Hajj Delegation and National Commission for Minorities Chairmans as deputy leader.
The Prince of Arcot said the delegation was briefed by the Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ausaf Sayeed and was followed by a power-point presentation by the Consul General Mohamed Noor Rahman Sheikh on Hajj 2019 arrangements. The Hajj has gone off quite smoothly and incident-free, he said in a press release.
The delegation visited the Indian Hajj Mission Office, Indian hospitals, branch offices and Indian pilgrims buildings and met several pilgrims and enquired about their well-being. The pilgrims expressed their happiness at the good quality of buildings hired for them, both at non-cooking and non-transportation zone, around the Holy Kaaba and Azizia locality, which is 8 kms away from the grand Mosque. The Government of India has provided medicines, worth Rs 3.5 crore to pilgrims, the release said.
The delegation had also called on several top Saudi officials in the Kingdom, including Hajj and Umrah Minister and conveyed greetings, on behalf of the Prime Minister of India and Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The Prince of Arcot also conveyed appreciation for the elaborate arrangements made by the Saudi Kingdom for Haj 2019 and gratitude for enhancing India’s Hajj quota to 2 lakh pilgrims.