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Punjab govt to provide legal assistance to students: Kuldeep Dhaliwal
Presiding over a high-level meeting with civil and police officers associated with NRI department here, Punjab NRI affairs minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal issued instructions to all deputy commissioners and senior superintendents of police to scrutinise the documents of travel agents and immigration agencies and send a report by July 10.
Punjab NRI affairs minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Thursday said that the state government will provide free legal assistance to around 700 students facing deportation from Canada. Most of these students belong to Punjab and they will be assisted by lawyers who are experts in immigration laws in Canada, he said. Dhaliwal has also written a letter to all MPs of Punjab origin in Canada to solve the issue of these students so that the future of the children can be secured.
Presiding over a high-level meeting with civil and police officers associated with NRI department here, Dhaliwal issued instructions to all deputy commissioners and senior superintendents of police to scrutinise the documents of travel agents and immigration agencies and send a report by July 10. He expressed concern that many travel agents are running immigration agencies illegally.
Dhaliwal said that chief minister Bhagwant Mann has already given clear instructions to improve the system. “If the system is transparent and clean, then there will be less scope for human trafficking by illegal travel/immigration agencies,” he said, announcing a special campaign against fake travel agents/immigration agencies in Punjab so that no one could be involved in human trafficking. The minister also said that in the last 10 years, if any immigrant Punjabi has been deliberately implicated in a wrong case, then it should be brought to their attention. “Such cases will be investigated, and justice will be given to the victim,” he added.
The minister also said that NRI meetings will be held for the first time in those villages of Punjab whose immigrants have done good work in their villages or earned fame at the national or international level. These meetings will be held at the district level from July 15 to August 30. He invited all NRPs (Non-Resident Punjabis) to bring their problems during NRI meetings. Police and civil officials were also instructed resolve the grievances of migrant Punjabis by June 30. A total of 609 complaints were received in the first NRI meeting, out of which 522 have been resolved while 87 complaints are pending.
Principal secretary, NRI affairs, Dilip Kumar, secretary Kanwal Preet Brar, Jalandhar division commissioner-cum-chairperson, NRI Sabha, Jalandhar, Gurpreet Kaur Sapra, ADGP, NRI wing, Praveen K Sinha and the nodal officers of all districts were present in the meeting.
