Supreme Leader's Representative in Hajj and Pilgrimage Affairs:
Providing Services to Atabat Pilgrims Needs to Be Improved
Supreme Leader's representative in Hajj and Pilgrimage affairs and Supervisor of Iranian pilgrims Hojjat al-Islam Seyed Abdolfattah Navvab in Monday’s meeting of the Planning and Coordination Council of the Supreme Leader’s Representative Office and the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization said that all officials of Hajj and Pilgrimage should try to improve the services being provided to the Atabat pilgrims otherwise they will owe the pilgrims.
As reported by Hajj Information Base, during the meeting which was prsided by Hojjat al-Islam Navvab, the Supreme Leader's Representative in Hajj Affairs after listening to the report read out by Atabat officials of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization called for rendering suitable solutions to improve the services in the modern plan for dispatching pilgrims to Atabat within one week.
"Considering that about a year has passed since the implementation of this plan, the deficiencies in the transportation, accommodation and food sectors have been identified and it is necessary to fix them as soon as possible in order to protect the rights of pilgrims," he added.
During the meeting, Head of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Seyed Sadeq Hosseini reported on the recent meeting of the managers of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization's provincial offices and travle agencies with the aim of reviewing the latest plans for sending pilgrims to the holy shrines, and said, "During this meeting, four issues of focusing on dispatch of pilgrims, Modern Atabat Plan, focusing on rendering services in three companies or regional models were discussed and proposed and after many expert discussions, the Modern Atabat Plan was supported the most.
Also in the meeting, Deputy Head of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization for Atabat Affairs Hojjat al-Islam Sohbatollah Rahmani and the organization's director general for planning Hamid Reza Mohammadi, director general of the office of planning, reported on the acceptance and dispatch of pilgrims to Atabat by Hajj and Pligrimage Organization, as well as tghe viewpoints of officials in the central office and the provinces in relation to the four proposed plans and dispatch of pilgrims by air and land to Holy Shrines of Atabat in Iraq and the impact of rise in foreign exchange on the pilgrimage packages.
Hojjat al-Islam Rahmani pointed out that the capacity has been considered and provided for the new period of pilgrimages between November 9 and December 11, and said, "In order to attract as many pilgrims as possible, arrangements have been made with the Ministry of Education and Culture, Martyrs Foundation, Social Security Organization, the Relief Committee of Imam Khomeini (RA) and... and it is necessary for the provinces to become more active in order to realize the planned plans."
The head of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization also pointed to the follow-ups carried out to send Iranian pilgrims to Syria and said, "It is expected that in the near future we will be able to send about five hundred pilgrims every week in the form of caravans to Damascus under the supervision of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization to visit the holy shrine Hazrat Zainab (AS) and Hazrat Ruqqiya (AS).
