New Delhi Aug. 25, 2004
IANS
A parliamentary panel has criticised the delay in allotting
work to the newly created ministry of NRI affairs and recommended that
a full-fledged ministry be put in place at the earliest.
The Standing Committee on External Affairs, in its report
tabled in the Lok Sabha Wednesday, noted that though the ministry was
created on May 27 and three "precious months have gone by,"
allocation of work for the ministry is yet to be decided.
This has been one of the main grouses of NRI Affairs
Minister Jagdish Tytler.
The panel noted that the external affairs ministry had
not set any time frame for implementing the recommendations of a group
of ministers in this regard and said: "At least basic infrastructure
for the working of a full-fledged ministry should be in place at the
earliest."
This was necessary "so that the functional set
up of the ministry can be established and the uncertainty and ambivalence
with regard to the working of the ministry ends without any further
loss of time," it said.
It expressed surprise that a budgetary allocation of
Rs. 60 million had been made by the external affairs ministry for observing
the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas or Indian Diaspora Day and said it should
have been transferred to the NRI ministry.
"The committee hope that a clear division of work
between the two ministries should be made at the earliest, leaving no
scope for confusion and overlapping in respect of their functioning
in the future," the report said.
It noted that The Indian Society for International Law
(ISIL), in a report, had suggested a suitable legislation to alleviate
the problems regarding pensions of the spouses and families of NRIs
and said no efforts should be spared to protect the interests of non-resident
Indians.
"Departments like Income Tax may also be persuaded
to cooperate in issuing no-objection/tax clearance certificates to minimise
the problems of NRIs as it was being done in the case of defence pensioners.
"Now that the ministry of non-resident Indians
affairs has been created to look after the affairs of NRIs, they should
play a prominent role to obviate such problems being faced by spouses
and families of non-resident Indians," it added.