PIOs will have a reason to cheer today

In the first phase, it will be open to PIOs in eight countries: USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Ireland and Singapore. This would also help in lowering the list of eligible applicants to one-fourth of the 20 million PIOs spread over the world.

A second filter is that a PIO can apply for dual citizenship, but it will be the prerogative of the Indian government to decide whether to grant it or not.

The PIO, after attaining the dual citizenship, would be entitled to all rights and privileges enjoyed by Indian citizens. That would mean exemption from queuing for Indian visa, right to purchase and own property in India without going through tedious approval procedures, permission to invest in securities and exemption from reporting their movement within the country.

However, the PIOs would not be allowed to contest elections and will not have the right to vote. And for that, the provisions would be introduced through legislation within the framework of the Citizenship Act of 1952, sources said.

The proposals were first put forward by the Committee on Indian Diaspora headed by noted jurist L M Singhvi. It was then vetted by an inter-ministerial group comprising officials from Home, External Affairs and Law ministries.

With the Cabinet approval, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would have kept the promise he made on January 9 at the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations in New Delhi.

But the delay in obtaining legal and constitutional opinion has meant that his word on introducing the legislation in the Budget session, which ends on Friday, would not be met.