New Delhi, Aug. 24: The management of Haj will formally be transferred to the minority affairs ministry from the foreign ministry on October 1.

The move will bring to fruition one part of a proposal mooted by the earlier Congress-led UPA government, which also wanted to make the management of the annual pilgrimage financially self-reliant.

That the Haj division will function under the minority affairs ministry from October 1 was confirmed today by minister of state Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Although the cabinet secretariat had informed the ministry in February that the division would be under it, the ministry had sought time for acclimatisation as preparations for this year's Haj had begun.

Usually, the preparations for Haj begin in November of the previous year. As the preparations for this year's pilgrimage, which began earlier this month, began, minority affairs ministry officials learnt the ropes from their counterparts in the external affairs ministry.

The department of personnel and training has assigned to the minority affairs ministry an additional joint secretary and a few other officials to oversee Haj. Over four lakh people had applied for the pilgrimage this year, of which 1.36 lakh got the clearance.

The transfer, however, will not end the external affairs ministry's role in Haj as countries have to negotiate agreements with the government of Saudi Arabia to fix their quota of pilgrims.

The junior external affairs minister visits Riyadh every year to sign the agreement. As of now, there is no clarity on whether the minority affairs minister will take over this role, too. However, the Indian mission in Riyadh will be part of the process.

During the pilgrimage, the mission will play its part in case of a crisis as its staff have the wherewithal to deal with situations that require immediate intervention.

Since the UPA government set up the minorities affairs ministry a decade ago, Muslims have been demanding that the management of Haj be transferred to it.

The UPA had also considered allowing the Haj management to raise its own resources. The plan was in line with the Tabung Haji, the Malaysian pilgrim funds board. Pilgrims register with it by paying small amounts for years to build a corpus. Malaysia developed permanent facilities for pilgrims in Saudi Arabia and at home with the corpus.