Akhilesh wants UP quota of Haj pilgrims to be hiked

Describing Haj quota of the state as "insufficient", the CM, after inaugurating a lottery programme for selection of pilgrims, said he would write a letter to the Centre requesting to increase it substantially.

He said construction of the Haj house in Ghaziabad would be completed in a year and land for another in Varanasi would be ready at the earliest.

Akhilesh said the previous SP government had got a Haj house constructed in Lucknow but proper attention was not paid on its maintenance in the last five years.

He said all necessary repair work would be carried out at Lucknow Haj house. (more)