Wind up NRI Sabha, demand members

Some prominent NRIs present on the occasion included Daljit Singh Sahota, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, Karnail Singh Cheema, Sujan Singh Chatha, Jaswant Singh and Didar Singh. They criticised the functioning of the Sabha whose chairman is the Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner, B.K. Srivastva.

The NRIs challenged the Sabha officials to list any case or problem of the NRIs which had been solved during the past three years. The NRIs present alleged misappropriation of funds and said the Sabha had been reduced to a platform to provide funds for foreign jaunts of bureaucrats. It was pointed out that nothing concrete had been done by the Sabha to redress the grievances of NRIs.

Replying to the criticism, Dhindsa said the government should strengthen its NRI cell and give it more publicity so that more NRIs come to know about it. He said a senior IAS officer instead of a PCS officer at present, should head the NRI cell in the CM8217;s office. quot;Similar cells should be established at the district level to solve various problems being faced by NRIs from the region, including unauthorised possession of their property,quot; he added.

Balbir Singh demanded that the NRI Sabha should be wound up as it had failed to do anything worthwhile for NRIs.

The NRIs present seemed agitated by the approach of the Sabha and said they had come up through their hard work to become millionaires abroad. quot;We want to share something with our brethren back home, but if the government8217;s attitude is not encouraging, we will hold back,quot; they said.

They specifically mentioned a brewery plant which had been held back by the government since the past three years. The Rs 35-crore project was given the go-ahead by the Beant Singh government but the Badal government did not grant its sanction.