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Indo American News • Friday, December 03 , 2010
Visit Visas Misused for Illegal Migration, Says Minister Ravi NEW DELHI (Manorama): Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi called for a check on the “misuse of visit visas”, citing it as one of the main reasons for illegal migration to Arab countries. “The agents fleece the workers, issuing them these visas and once the visa expires, they become more or less like indentured labourers. They get taken to the interiors of most Arab countries to work under unfavorable conditions. Therefore, there should be a check on the misuse of visit visas to prevent this misfortune,” Ravi said here. Appreciating the awareness programme by the ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA), Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said: “A simple but important initiative recently taken by the ministry is to give wide publicity through the audio visual and print media to educate the people about the realities of working in these countries. The basic problem is about the lack of information, illiteracy and the role of the agents at the ground level.” Ravi also stressed on the need to employ lawyers for Indian prisoners overseas. “We should give them legal help and
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ONLINE EDITION: www.indoamerican-news.com
GSI finds Huge Coal Reserves in Tripura
Agartala: The Geological Survey of India has struck huge reserves of quality coal in at least two places in West Tripura and Dhalai districts. The sources said that a team of GSI scientists, headed by Director (Tripura Centre), T. Rajkumar, conducted surveys in the two districts and found huge reserves of anthracite coal, considered as black gold. Places where coals were found are Tulashikhar revenue block in West Tripura district, bordering Bangladesh and Dalucherra in Dhalai
district. The samples have been sent to Delhi for further ‘intensity’ test and the formal announcement would be made there, the sources said. Since the tribals in the areas had been extracting coal and bitumen, a common binder in road construction, for a long time and selling them to local brick kilns, the sources said, there was a possibility of finding more coal reserves in the two districts.
The people of Tripura and Dhalai will get coal excavating jobs that will boost the Indian economy
Visit visas are being misused on a large scale, says Vayalar Ravi, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister. causing illegal migration to Arab countries and delays for workers who get held back and are forced into labor while waiting to get their releases sanctioned. Measures to educate our citizens are needed to prevent this
employ lawyers, there are prisoners continuing to be in jail despite completing the term. We should use the money from the welfare fund... nobody should suffer from lack of money,” Ravi said. He said the sponsor-arranged visasystem for workers is being done through unauthorized agents, and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council - which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates - are considering abolishing them.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 03 , 2010 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM