Fifty representatives, recommended by 10 members of the parliamentary standing committee on Religious Affairs Ministry, are going to Saudi Arabia to perform holy hajj at the government expenditure this year.
The ministry has approved the proposal made by the JS body at a meeting held on June 10.
Each of the members can recommend five representatives to perform hajj at government cost. This year three members of the same committee are going to perform hajj with the hajj delegation.
State Minister for Religious Affairs Sheikh Md Abdullah has turned down a proposal to include members of a Jatiya Sangsad (JS) body in his ministry's various committees on hajj management.
Chairman of the JS body on the Religious Affairs Ministry Hafez Md Ruhul Amin Madani made the proposal at the 3rd meeting of the committee at parliament on Tuesday.
Mr Ruhul Amin presided over the meeting.
"I can't do anything beyond the existing rules. If the Prime Minister approves, only then I can include members of the parliamentary standing committee in the committees of the ministry during hajj season," said Mr Abdullah.
Talking to the FE, Mr Ruhul Amin said they wanted inclusion of the standing committee members in various hajj-related committees of the ministry so that they could help reduce sufferings of the pilgrims, which is very common in case of Bangladesh.
A meeting source said the committee wanted to discuss various irregularities in the hajj management this year- specially the irregularities in the medical team where most of the aides to treat the hajj pilgrims have no medical background.
But the minister and others declined to discuss those saying everything was done with the consent of the Prime Minister.
Even the committee for house rent was formed by the cabinet of the PM.
This year, the ministry has sent about 163 of the 171-member 'Hajj Assistant Delegation' to Saudi Arabia to help the medical team to treat pilgrims who have no medical background.
Most of the delegation members are office assistants, drivers, gunmen, policemen, security guards, cleaners, personal assistants, pump operators, typists, compositors, carpenters, store keepers and orderlies.
About 45 are office assistants and 27 are drivers of the Religious Affairs Ministry, the minister's office and other government offices while there are 15 gunmen and policemen.
Of the eight having medical background, three are medical technologists, two pharmacists, two senior staff nurses and a health assistant.
About 40 government officials and employees working at different offices in the constituency of the religious affairs minister are also included in the delegation.
During the discussion on Hajj 2019, the ministry informed the committee that 74 flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and 76 flights of Saudi Airlines have carried 54,765 hajj pilgrims until Tuesday 8:00 AM.
The medical team has so far provided treatment to 3,139 pilgrims.
The first and last hajj flights to Saudi Arabia are on July 04 and August 05 respectively.
The return flights from Saudi Arabia are from August 17 till September15.
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