Monday, Dec 30, 2002
Monday, Dec 30, 2002 |
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By Our Special Correspondent
Yet another proposal under consideration of the Government aims to secure undertakings from local sponsors of Pakistani visitors in order to hold them responsible for the whereabouts of their guests till the time the visitors left the country. Talking to reporters here today, the Minister of State for Home, Vidyasagar Rao, expressed concern over increasing cases of Pakistani nationals overstaying or going underground. He said all State Governments had been empowered by the Centre to identify, nab and deport those staying in the country beyond the time permitted in their visas. "The Government has asked the State Governments to launch special drives to nab those Pakistan nationals staying illegally. State police forces and the registration offices for foreigners have been empowered to nab and deport them,'' he said. The Government was also contemplating grant of citizenship on humanitarian grounds on a case-by-case basis to aged persons whose kin lived here or women who got married to Indian nationals. Mr. Rao said that of the 11,208 Pakistan nationals who entered India legally but were overstaying or had gone underground, 2,324 could not be traced. The Home Ministry would install computer software at points of entry and exit in different parts of the country so that information about foreigners was available nation-wide. He said that a number of meetings had been held recently in the Home Ministry to review the situation, and added that the steps being contemplated stemmed from random verification that 90 per cent of the addresses given by the Pakistan nationals for visa purposes in India were found to be false. After the 1972 Shimla agreement, India and Pakistan had signed an accord on issuance of passports, which entitled nationals of both the countries to visit a maximum of three places. The accord also restricted issue of visas to meeting relatives or for diplomatic purposes. However, Mr. Rao said that India had unilaterally increased the number of places which could be visited to 12 and also started issuing tourist visas. "We would like to revert to the original position of restricting the places that could be visited by a Pakistani to three as before. Refusal to grant extension on tourist visas is also being considered.'' The Minister said that all "unilateral concessions'' granted by India were being reviewed and steps taken to restrict many of them. The new approach also reflected the Government's concern over growing threat to national security. Giving a State-wise break-up of the Pakistanis who were either missing or could not be traced, he said that 1,707 persons were untraceable in Maharashtra, 946 in Madhya Pradesh, 988 in Uttar Pradesh and 634 in West Bengal. He said the practice of "100 per cent pre-verification'' of Pakistanis seeking Indian visas would be resumed and circulars had been issued to the State Governments concerned to verify the antecedents of their local sponsors. There were cases of aged persons who had crossed over from Pakistan during the 1965 and 1971 wars and remained here since then, especially in Rajasthan and Gujarat, for whom grant of citizenship was being considered, he said. There were 4,978 such persons, mostly Hindus, in Rajasthan. Asked if amendments to the Foreigners Act, 1946, or the Indian Passports Act, 1920, were required, Mr. Rao said the Government orders would be sufficient for the purpose.
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