E-Paper
‘NRI milni’ programme held at Moga
More than 120 Non-resident of Indians (NRIs) on Monday came forward with their grievances mostly regarding the land disputes, during the “NRI Punjabiyan Naal Milni” program held at Moga.
More than 120 Non-resident of Indians (NRIs) on Monday came forward with their grievances mostly regarding the land disputes, during the “NRI Punjabiyan Naal Milni” program held at Moga. The minister of the NRI affairs, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Monday met with the NRI Punjabis belonging to seven malwa districts—Moga, Faridkot, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Mansa, Muktsar and Bathinda-- during the program organised for disposal of their complaints. During this, more than 125 cases were heard of which around 70 were from the Moga district. Out of the total complaints, 93 were related to property disputes with half of them alleging “the government officials not helping them”.
A Canada returnee Rajinder Singh, who belongs to Purane Wala in Moga alleged in front of the minister that the civil administration and district police not listening to his grievances. “I have a property dispute with my brother. But the officials are helping my brother to take away my right,” he told the minister, who asked the deputy commissioner to look into the matter. Interestingly, the village panchayat members were allowed to submit a complaint against Rajinder at NRI Milni. In the complaint, the panchayat claimed that Rajinder pretended to be an NRI as he was deported back from Canada around 25 years ago and gave fake complaints.
A USA citizen Gurmeet Singh Saran alleged that his brother has illegally occupied his property after throwing their mother out of the house and also stole the jewellery. “The police are not helping me and simply favoring him because his brother-in-law is a municipal councilor,” he added.
Tejinder Pal Singh Bhatti, who moved to Canada in 2010, said he has three shops in Moga city, which have been encroached by some persons. “When I ask them to vacate my shops, they threaten me with dire consequences. As I am an NRI, they want to take over my land,” he added.
An NRI belonging to Faridkot told the minister that the “patwaris are corrupt to the core and uaable to do work”. He further alleged that being an NRI he has to face a lot of difficulty at the revenue department offices to get his work done.
Govt to conduct NRI meeting twice every year: Minister
“NRI Punjabis have a special contribution to the prosperity of Punjab. Rangla Punjab in the true sense cannot be imagined without the active support of the Punjabi diaspora. The Punjab government is preparing a special policy to solve all the problems related to NRI Punjabis promptly. To listen to the problems of NRI Punjabis and to solve them, the government is planning to conduct NRI meetings twice every year in December and April,” said Dhaliwal.
He said that the government knows very well that the main issues of the NRIs are their land-property, business and family disputes. “The government will try to establish special fast-track courts for the cases of NRIs as soon as possible. The nodal officers are being appointed by the government to hear the issues of the NRI Punjabis at the district level who will ensure timely and appropriate solutions to the complaints of the NRI Punjabis only,” he said.
AAP MLAs Manjit Singh Bilaspur, Devinderjit Singh Laddi Dhos, Dr Amandeep Kaur Arora, Ranbir Singh Bhullar, Gurdit Singh Sekhon, Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar, Jagsir Singh and Deepak Arora, were also present.
