Jalandhar : Ahead of the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas slated to start at Gandhinagar in Gujarat from January 7, the Punjabi diaspora has raised some demands. They have sought e-visa facility at the Amritsar international airport and a facility to cast their vote through Indian missions abroad. They have also demanded that NRIs be kept out from the preview of Sections 107,151 of the CrPC that entitles the court to seize their passport with immediate effect on just receiving an affidavit from a complainant. The NRIs want an e-visa facility at the Raja Sansi International Airport in Amritsar. While eight international airports, including those in Delhi, Chennai, Kochi, Goa, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram, in the country are already offering the e-visa facility, none in Punjab offers it.

Satnam Singh Chahal, Executive Director of North American Punjabi Association (NAPA), said the state government should raise the issue at Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas this year. “The city has religious and trade significance. It should be made the gateway for the Punjabi diaspora to enter the state,” said Chahal.

The Punjabi NRIs have also been demanding direct flight service to the USA and Canada from Punjab. At present, the Amritsar international airport does not have any direct flight to the USA and has only one odd flight for Canada. While Bathinda and Mohali international airport are yet to begin their operations, the sole flyer Air India has already withdrawn its flights from Ludhiana’s Sahnewal airport without giving any reasons.

Accessibility to ballot

Jasveer Singh Gill, president, Punjab NRI Sabha, said it was not viable for every NRI to spend $3,000-$4,000 to come to India only to cast his vote. The NRIs have demanded they be allowed to vote either through mail as in the case of voters from the armed forces and security agencies or through Indian missions abroad.

Law problems

The NRIs have also demanded that they be kept out of the preview of Section 107 and 151 of the CrPC that entitles the court to impound their passport on receiving just an affidavit from a complainant.

“Most of the time, it is being misused by people, who themselves have grabbed our properties. They simply file an affidavit on a Rs 100 stamp paper and allege that we are threatening them. Most of the time, with the connivance of local police officials, they manage to get our passports impounded in the court,” said Manjit Singh, a Canada-based NRI hailing from Jalandhar, who got his passport back after six years of struggle. He said even though his innocence was proved in court, the police did not take any action on the person who had filed the false complaint.

Sources, however, claimed that the government was only keen to promote the state as an investment destination amongst the NRIs. They said the state government was taking a six-member delegation to the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas this year and no NRI had been invited to join the team.

The Tribune (tribuneindia.com, Jan 06, 2015)