Exercise on to bring down NRI Sikh blacklist to minimum
Saturday, 14/11/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
NEW DELHI: An exercise is on in the Union home ministry to prune the blacklist of NRI Sikhs to the bare minimum, sources told HT on Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Thursday assured representatives of the UK Sikh community that he would abolish the blacklist that bars some NRI Sikhs from visiting India.
“There are around 60 names in the blacklist as of now. But the exercise is on to bring it down to the bare minimum level,” said a home ministry official, requesting anonymity. Sources say the list includes those people who supported militancy in Punjab in the ’80s and ’90s or actively participated in it. In 2011, there were around 170 names in the blacklist and more than 140 were deleted from it.
“The blacklist has been very traumatic for the community. Many innocent people were barred from visiting India as their names were similar to the people who were on the list,” said Paramjit Singh Sarna, a former president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.
