52k Haj pilgrims in a spot as tour co zones in Mina cancelled

Mumbai: The fate of more than 52,000 Indian Haj pilgrims hangs in the balance as the Saudi Ministry of Haj and Umrah has cancelled the zones in Mina it had allotted to private tour operators (PTOs) officially called Combined Haj Group Organisers (CHGOs).
Mina is the tent city near Mecca where pilgrims stay for 4 days as part of Haj rituals. Saudi authorities have cancelled zones 1 and 2, and the processing of the payment for zones 3, 4 and 5 has been stopped.
The cancellation of zones 1 and 2 and "no payment option for the rest three zones" earlier allotted to the 26 CHGOs from India, scheduled to take 52,000 pilgrims, means their plan will go topsy turvy as they have booked the pilgrims as per the zones they had committed to the pilgrims.
Haj will be performed in the first week of June.
Zones are decided as per the distance from jamarat or the pillars symbolising devils at the valley of Mina. The entire tent city is divided into five zones.
Without zone activation on Nusuk, a platform provided by the Saudi Ministry of Haj and Umrah that offers pilgrims many services, no further procedures can be done, which could also mean the Haj for the pilgrims using PTOs can be cancelled this year, said PTOs.
Out of India's Haj quota of 1.75 lakh pilgrims, 52,500 are scheduled to go through CHGOs while the rest will use the services of the Haj Committee of India.
Tour operators said minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju had secured good zones for Indian pilgrims, but his efforts seem to be coming to naught after the Saudi authorities cancelled zones 1 and 2.
"Rijiju tried very hard and got the best zones ever for us. But now the plans will go haywire if the zones are not reinstated," said a tour operator.
A senior official in the ministry of minority affairs said the Saudis cancelled zones 1 and 2 because of delayed payment to the Saudi authorities. CHGOs, though, claimed that payments got delayed because the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) linked to Nusuk was not active. Since direct payment to the Nusuk wallet was not happening, the CHGOs were directed to pay through the Haj Committee of India which would send the money to the Consul General of India in Jeddah, and they would send that money to the CHGOs' wallets.
"Many of us who made payments through the Haj Committee or directly to the IBAN-linked Nusuk did not see their transactions reflected. Had the IBAN been activated in time, the current mess would have been avoided," said another CHGO.
The lack of coordination between the Consul General of India in Jeddah, ministry of minority affairs and the ministry of Haj and Umrah in Saudi Arabia has led to the scenario, alleged a CHGO.
The Consul (Haj) posted at Jeddah who has been coordinating with the Saudi authorities could not be contacted for comments.