Bogor to pay for haj pilgrimages

BOGOR: Mayor Diani Boediarto announced on Tuesday a plan to pay for communal prayer leaders in mosques in Bogor to go on the haj pilgrimage later this year.

"A team established to select those who will go this year has chosen two imam ... Compared to previous years, we will send fewer officials," he told hundreds of Islamic preachers and leaders at Bogor Grand Mosque on Tuesday.

Municipal spokesperson Dewi Kurnia told Antara that the administration was also considering paying the stipends of those responsible for looking after 75 mosques, to be designated later by the administration, out of the 2005 Bogor budget. --JP