|
Travel
Sites |
New minister to focus on Indian workers in Gulf
New Delhi: The New Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi on Monday said that his first priority would be to focus on the problems of Indian workers in the Gulf region. Ravi said close to five million Indians were working in the Gulf. Therefore it was imperative for him to take up all relevant issues concerning their immediate and long-term welfare.
Responding to a question with regard to difficulties faced by poor Indian workers, particularly in the Gulf, as a result of the prohibitive cost of air travel, Ravi said he would take up this issue with the Civil Aviation Ministry to find suitable solution. The Minister said that there are estimated to be 25 million overseas Indians spread across 110 countries in the world. The Overseas Indian Community represents a significance post today and the focus of the Ministry today is to be a friend and guide. He said that the intention of the UPA Government in forming this Ministry was to give mainstream attention to the vast Overseas Indian Community. He drew attention to the fact that the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh himself is closely monitoring the progress being made by the Ministry.
Underlining
that the demand for voting rights for the NRIs was genuine, Ravi said
that his Ministry has already initiated action in this direction. He himself
would very soon pursue with the Law Ministry to work out the modalities
and to bring this matter before the Union Cabinet for an appropriate decision
at the earliest, he added. Ravi also indicated that he would have interaction
meetings with Overseas Indian Associations to understand the concerns
as well as the areas of interests of the Indians living abroad. He also
referred to the institutional arrangements made by the Government of Kerala,
in form of `NORKA', to give exclusive attention to Overseas Indians and
indicated that he would have meetings with State Governments also to encourage
them to establish similar departments/cells to give special attention
to Overseas Indians from the State concerned. The Minister underlined
the fact that the intention of the UPA Government in forming the Ministry
of Overseas Indian Affairs was to give mainstream attention to the vast
overseas Indian community. He reiterated the commitment of the UPA Government
to take forward the Overseas Citizenship of India Scheme launched recently.
He also emphasized that Overseas Indians today represent knowledge resources
and that efforts would be made to build partnership with the Overseas
Indian Community to engage them in the process of country's development.
-Jan
30, 2006
Tourist
offices
in India
|
Window
on India |
|
News
Links |