Special policy for Punjabi NRIs soon: Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal

Jalandhar, December 16

Kickstarting ‘NRI Punjabiyan naal milni’ here for the Doaba region, NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Friday said the Punjab Government would come up with a special policy for Punjabi diaspora in the New Year, paving a way to facilitate Punjabi NRIs in different sectors as well as addressing their issues within minimal time.

Will show them how funds are used

We will make the NRIs visit some locations to show how their money has been used properly for development projects and that they should not refrain from investing here. Kuldeep S Dhaliwal, NRI Affairs Minister

Presiding over at the event held here at local St Soldier Campus, Dhaliwal said he would soon chalk out a programme to encourage investments by Punjabi diaspora. “We will make the NRIs visit some locations to show how their money has been used properly for development projects and that they should not refrain from investing here”, he said.

On the demand to include Punjab on the list of airports for flights to Canada, he said he would take up the matter with the Centre. Emphasising that legal aid to NRIs through expert teams is under consideration, the minister said he would soon meet Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to take necessary steps in this regard. He said efforts were on to setup exclusive fast track courts for hearing the cases of NRIs. A UK-based NRI woman had told the minister that she had personally attended 48 hearings in the court for the past six years and still her matter was pending.

The minister further pointed out that nodal officers would be deputed in the districts, who would get the issues of NRIs done at the earliest without any delay.

In the presence of senior civil and police department officials, the minister patiently heard the problems of NRIs from Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala districts and directed that these complaints should be resolved immediately. After hearing the case of each NRI personally, the minister asked the Deputy Commissioners and SSPs of the respective districts for necessary action.

Canadian NRI Maninder Gill raised the issue that the NRI Sabha set up by the Punjab Government had become a centre of corruption. “The NRIs, who were already disappointed over their pending police and revenue matters not being taken up, were further being victimised and made to illegally shell out more money on an assurance that their work would be done through them”, he said.

During the meeting with the NRI Punjabis, a total of 160 cases were heard during today’s event. Prominent amongst those present on the occasion included Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Jai Krishan Singh Rouri, Kartarpur MLA Balkar Singh, Jalandhar Central MLA Raman Arora, Nakodar MLA Inderjeet Kaur Mann, Tanda MLA Jasvir Singh Raja, Dasuya MLA Karamvir Singh, AAP leaders Olympian Surinder Singh Sodhi, Sajjan Singh Cheema, Punjab Agro Chairman Mangal Singh, District Planning Board Chairman Amritpal Singh Jeet Lal Bhatti and others.

Besides NRIs, Principal Secretary, NRI Department, J Balamurugan, ADGP (NRI) Praveen Kumar Sinha, Divisional Commissioner-cum-Chairman NRI Sabha Gurpreet Kaur Sapra, Jalandhar Police Commissioner S Boopathi and Deputy Commissioners Jaspreet Singh (Jalandhar), Komal Mittal (Hoshiarpur) and Vishesh Sarangal (Kapurthala) were present on the occasion.