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Re: Taxpayers pay for the HAJ Pilgrimage ?
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Dear Umesh,
This issue had been agitating my mind for quite sometime.I had been asking
my lawyer friends that a state whose Constitution in the preamble contains
word Secular (dictionary meaning of which is 'Not concerned with religion ')
cannot indulge in such funding.I asked them that if I claim that my
religion(always a personal thing) dictates that I must make a trip to the
Moon atleast once in a lifetime and subsequently thousands make such claim
then?I said I want to move a writ petition in Supreme Court asking it to
issue directions to the Union Govt to part finance my trip to the moon.My
own part of the expenditure is the only thing that has kept me from
actually going ahead with it.You have mentioned sufficient reasons to stop
the subsidy.But will it?
Raju Bharatiya
----- Original Message -----
From: Tiwari, Umesh K <UKTiwari@pcgb.com>
To: <debate@indiapolicy.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 7:09 AM
Subject: Taxpayers pay for the HAJ Pilgrimage ?
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> Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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> Just now read a Hindustan Times report. The News Item says :
> "SUBSIDY FOR HAJ RAISED: The Union Cabinet today okayed the enhanced
subsidy
> for Haj pilgrimage. The subsidy quantum has shot up from a mere Rs 10
crore
> in 1994 to Rs 137.12 crore this year. The sharp rise in recent years is
> attributed to the fixed fare of Rs 12,000 for each Haj pilgrim.
> The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee,
> approved the hiked subsidy without making any changes in the net air fare
> for the pilgrims. Briefing mediapersons, Parliamentary Affairs Minister
> Pramod Mahajan said as per estimates 72,000 pilgrims were to visit Mecca
> this year as against 62,103 last year. Mr Mahajan said Air India will
> utilise six aircraft on wet lease for transportation of the pilgrims. The
> actual travel cost per head would be Rs 31,044 assuming that flights going
> one way remain empty.
> While the air fare stays pegged at Rs 12,000, subsidy on each ticket had
> risen from Rs 5,000 in 1994 to Rs 19,044 each this year. "
> While offering subsidies or temporary tax incentives to domestic
industries
> and farming community to encourage their growth and productivity and make
> them competitive in open world, or levying customs duty on things, cheap
> import of which hurts local industry irreparably, can be argued as means
> applied by all governments. However, offering subsidies and hiring planes
on
> tax-payer money so that some people can go on cheap and affordable HAJ
> Pilgrimage is preposterous.
> How about subsidizing Pilgrimage for all Sikhs and sending a government
> plane load full of Sikh people to Pakistan (I think it is Nankana Saheb),
or
> subsidizing Pilgrimage for Christians to visit Rome or Jews & Christians
to
> Jerusalem or Hindus to Char Dham?
> This is not intended to hurt any religious community, however it is hard
for
> me to digest that Government of India hires Air India planes so that some
> people can go on pilgrimage!
> I am wondering what others at IPI think about issues like these.
> Thanks.
> Umesh Tiwari
>
>
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> This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
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This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
Rules, Procedures, Archives: http://www.indiapolicy.org/debate/
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