CM to address NRI Sangat Darshan Sammelan - NRIs of seven districts under Jalandhar Division to be covered

Friday, 16/01/2015

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Jalandhar : Reaching out to the Punjabi diaspora of NRI belt of Doaba, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would lead NRI Sangat Darshan Sammelan to address the grievances of the NRIs on the spot on Friday.

NRIs belonging to seven districts of Jalandhar Division - Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot would be covered during the sangat darshan. Complaints regarding fraudulent marriages, property issues and other police cases would be taken up.

While the complaints of NRIs would be addressed by a team of senior administration and police officials from the respective districts, the NRI Sabha Punjab had already forwarded the complaints of the NRIs to the district administration.

NRI Sabha Punjab president Jasvir Singh Gill said that they had sent as many as 83 complaints from the year 2009 to December 2014 to the administration. “The Punjab government has directed us to forward the pending complaints of NRIs from December 15 onwards. Out of these 16 complaints have been addressed by the administration and the police”, he said.

Gill also said that in the month of January alone, they received as many as 21 complaints. He said that NRI Sabha would also put up a stall highlighting its work during the sangat darshan.

Earlier in the day, a team led by Deputy Commissioner, Kamal Kishore Yadav, Commissioner of Police, Yurinder Singh Hayer visited the venue of NRI Sangat Darshan Sammelan at Imperial Manor Palace on Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur road. Yadav highlighted that to facilitate the NRIs, separate district-wise counters would be installed during the sangat darshan.

“No NRI other than those from the seven districts covered under the Jalandhar Division would be covered in the sangat darshan. NRIs should get themselves registered at the respective district counter, so that their names could be further announced from the stage to personally meet the CM”, he added.

The DC also urged the NRIs to bring three copies of their complaints during the sangat darshan, so that their complaint could reach the respective officials for early redressal.

“For seeking entry to the sangat darshan, it was must that the NRIs should bring their passports as identity proof. Apart from this, if the representative of an NRI was attending the sangat darshan, then they should bring a copy of power or attorney of the concerned NRI”, he said.

NRI Sabha chief’s tenure to conclude

Jalandhar: Two years after he was elected, the Punjab government was yet to take any decision on the fate of incumbent NRI Sabha Punjab president, whose tenure would conclude on January 27, this month.

NRI Sabha president, Jasvir Singh Gill headed the sabha on a two-year term, post-elections in the year 2013. The NRI Sabha, which was working as an NGO was following the directions of Punjab government for solving the problems of NRIs. Though the NRI Sabha president had written to its Chairman, Anurag Verma, no central executive could be constituted. An executive is mandatory under the NRI Sabha constitution to implement welfare policies of the NRI community settled in UK, US, Canada, Australia, European countries, the Gulf and other nations.

The NRI Sabha was a major platform for the expatriate community abroad to get their grievances related to property, matrimonial and fraud cases to be taken up with the respective government officials. At present, the NRI Sabha has a membership close to 22,000 across the world. But the decision-taking body for the NRIs remained NRI Commission, NRI Police stations and the Revenue officials. As if this was not enough, the NRI Sabha also failed to hold the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to bring necessary amendments, if any, in the constitution and the annual NRI convention.

Despite the fact that the sabha constitution has clearly stated that it should remain a professionally organised service body with the involvement of the ex-NRIs, NRIs, their representatives and the government officials for the betterment of Punjabis abroad.

NRI Sabha president, Jasvir Gill said that the Punjab government would take a final call about his tenure. “There is no communication about this matter from the Punjab government”, he said, refusing to comment on the failure to constitute the executive.

Notably, the NRI Sabha president had sent a list of 31-member executive committee to the chairman for an approval but nothing was done, hampering the work of major decision taking body. Gill had also sent another list of eight-nominated persons for constituting the Administrative Sub Committees under the sabha.