To check the menace of vacation weddings, the Union External Affairs Ministry would soon start a website to upload the summons to NRI grooms. “If they will not respond to these summons, their property in India could be attached,” the Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Punjab Congress MPs on Tuesday.
Congress parliamentarians, led by Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee president and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Jakhar along with ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and Amritsar MP Gurjit Singh Aujla, met Swaraj to raise varieties of issues.
The MPs demanded a policy on NRI grooms to safeguard the interest of Punjab’s brides. Besides, they also raise the problems faced by passport and study visa seekers from the State.
Jakhar, during the meeting, told the Union Minsiter that many NRIs come to India to marry Indian girls, and quickly return to the foreign lands after taking hefty dowry and leaving their wives here in the lurch. “Many of these men are found to be already married abroad, rendering their marriage in India null and void,” he added.
He suggested that the Ministry of External Affairs put in place a foolproof mechanism to ascertain their marital status which would enable the parents of the girls to verify the antecedents of the prospective grooms.MPs demanded that a concrete policy should be formulated in this regard as a deterrent for erring NRI grooms so that innocent girls are not victimized.
Raising the problems faced by people at Passport Kendras, Jakhar said that though there are about a half dozen passport kendras or centres in various parts of Punjab, applicants continue to suffer major hardships in securing their passports with some of them forced to travel as much as 200 kms for verification of their documents.
While facility of online submission of application is available at the Passport Centers established in the state, the applicants are asked to personally visit Passport Seva Kendras for physical verification of documents on the appointed time and date. What aggravates their woes is that they are often sent back for failing to enclose all the requisite documents or are asked to furnish more proofs in support of their claim for change of name etc,” he added.
Jakhar asked Swaraj to issue directions to these Centers to ensure that all uploaded data or other requisite information furnished by the applicant online is checked carefully, and the applicants are apprised about any shortcoming or deficiency in their application through e-mail, prior to giving them an appointment.
“This will save them from undue harassment, besides wastage of time and energy,” he said while demanding to open more Passport Seva Kendras in Punjab to cope with the increasing rush of applicants desirous of getting their passports.
Sharing another concern about the problems faced by youth migrating to Australia, New Zealand and Canada on study visa, Jakhar said that they are solely dependent on the services rendered by private agents.
Jakhar suggested that at least in these three countries, where a large number of Indian students migrate every year, information about recognized colleges, courses and fee structure, besides technical details, be provided on the official website of the Ministry of Overseas so as to properly guide these students before they leave for foreign lands.
During his meeting, Jakhar also raised an issue related to Dilawar Singh of Pathankot who was stuck in Saudi Arabia seeking Union Ministry’s intervention to direct the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia to take necessary action to help Dilawar get his passport back in order to enable him to travel to India immediately, as per his family’s request.