Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit to China in May, India is considering extending the tourist visa-on-arrival facility to citizens of that country. The matter was discussed threadbare on Tuesday at a high-level meeting chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh where security agencies, however, expressed reservations and suggested a cautious approach before taking the final decision.
Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma, who also attended the meeting, said a decision whether to extend the facility to China, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada would be taken soon. “We have suggested to the Home Minister that extending the tourist visa-on-arrival facility to citizens of 40 countries has led to a quantum jump in tourists arrival. The Home Minister has accepted the proposal for extending the facility to five more countries for discussion,” he said.
Home Ministry officials said security agencies have red flagged in granting the visa-on-arrival facility to Chinese nationals due to various reasons. Frequent issuance of stapled visa by China to people from Arunachal Pradesh was one of the key reasons for the objection, an official said. However, there is a high possibility of over-ruling the objection of the security agencies by the highest level of the Government, he said.