URBAN DEVELOPMENT Minister Azam Khan today urged the Air India to provide direct flight from Lucknow to Jeddah for 1600 Haj pilgrims of Lucknow.
While addressing a meeting of the UP State Haj Committee, Azam Khan, who is also chairman of the Committee, said here that the Central Government should also ensure that good and new planes were made available to the Haj pilgrims and that they did not face any inconvenience in their journey. He regretted that the Central Government did not pay any compensation to the family of the pilgrim who died during Haj, but the state Government provided Rs 1 lakh to each of the families of the deceased.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Azam Khan strongly condemned Maytawati’s statement in which she had dubbed Muslims rigid and hardliners and said that she had always treated the Muslims as a vote bank and never bothered for their genuine welfare. No Muslim would tolerate this insult and the minority community would give a befitting reply to her in the coming Vidhan Sabha elections, he added.
Drawing a parallel between comments of George Bush and Mayawati on Muslims, Azam said that Mayawati was also speaking the same language of hatred, which was being used by the American President.