Chandigarh, October 22: A 24X7 online Quick Response Centre would be set up to deal with any problem faced by NRIs at the airports on their return home. This was stated by the NRI Affairs Minister Pargat Singh while presiding a review meeting of NRI Affairs department here today.
Pargat Singh said that it has come to his notice that sometimes the NRIs are stopped while landing at the airport due to paperwork, technical reasons or any misunderstanding which makes them nervous and embarrassed even though their documents and identities are correct.
In order to help the passengers in such cases, the state government would set up a ‘Quick Response Center’ which would be operational 24X7. Experts would be deputed at center in dealing with the problems faced by the NRIs. The experts would contact the concerned party on the phone on the spot to get rid of the embarrassment of the NRIs. Centre’s contact number will be made public.
To address the grievances of NRIs in land / property related revenue cases, police related criminal, matrimonial related and other cases and to expedite the resolution of pending cases, Pargat Singh directed the department to liaise with the Revenue and the Police Departments to work out a blueprint for the deployment of dedicated officers in each district.
Similarly, in view of the difficulty faced by the people wishing to go abroad for coming to Chandigarh for verification, the NRI Minister asked the department to work on a proposal for applying online from home and get the certificate from the Suvidha or Sanjh Centre of the respective areas.
The Minister further said that many NRIs are willing to invest in sports, education, health sector in their respective villages and towns but could not do so due to lack of proper knowledge. In this case the department has to work for the facilitator. Similarly the department should set up a wing for finance and business affairs to facilitate NRIs.
Pargat Singh also divulged that the Punjab Government would coordinate with the Union Ministry of External Affairs to recognize the coordinators posted by the Punjab Government for the convenience of NRIs in different countries.
The NRI Affairs Minister asked the department to set up an integrated portal on which all the services related to NRIs and details of the work being done by the state government would be available so that the NRIs could contact the state government through a single portal.
He also instructed the department to activate again ‘Connect with Roots’ program. He also asked them to keep in touch with the NRI Sabhas and hold NRI conventions in the near future.
Prominent amongst others who attended the meeting included Punjab State Commission for NRIs’s Chairman Justice Shekhar Kumar Dhawan (Retd.), Members’ MP Singh, Hardeep Singh Dhillon, Daljit Singh Sahota and Savinder Singh Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary NRI Kirpa Shankar Saroj, Secretary Krishan Kumar, ADGP AS Rai and Secretary of the Commission Surinder Kaur.
