The Hindu : State has many plans up its sleeve for NoRKs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 12, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

State has many plans up its sleeve for NoRKs

NEW DELHI, JAN. 11. The Kerala Government has taken up with the Centre and Embassies of various Gulf countries some measures aimed at easing the problems being faced by the emigrants from the State, the Minister for Non-Resident Keralites' (NoRKs) Affairs, M.M. Hassan, has said.

Addressing a gathering of NRIs at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations here today, the Minister said a three-member ministerial delegation met the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, recently and drew his attention to the problems being faced by NoRKs. As a result, the Government withdrew the much-resented clause, which stipulates the depositing of single economy class air fare in advance by the prospective job-seekers.

Similarly, the process of attesting the qualifying certificates of job-seekers take away much time, energy and money in the Ministries of Human Resource Development and External Affairs in Delhi. The State Government's request to set up a counter in Kerala for the attestation of the qualifying certificate has been accepted by the Centre.

Confronted by the periodic hike in air fare between India and the Gulf from three airports in Kerala, there has been a consistent demand from the Gulf-bound passengers for an alternate and cheaper mode of transport.

There were resentment among the people in the Gulf, especially Malayalis, when Air India shelved the proposal of a budget airline.

Mr. Hassan urged the Central Government for its resolution immediately to save lakhs of people living in Gulf countries.

The Labour Minister, Babu Divakaran, and the Public Works Minister, M.K. Muneer, also spoke on the occasion.

At the function, 12 prominent Malayalis working in various Gulf countries were honoured. They were C.K. Menon (Doha), Mansur Palur (Doha), K.P. Abdul Hameed (Doha), M.A. Yusuf Ali (Abu Dhabi), Mohammad Ali (Abu Dhabi), Jacob Thomas (Kuwait) Y.A. Rahim (Saudi Arabi), Soman Baby (Bahrain), Sebastian (Saudi Arabia) and Hassan Bhas (Bahrain). -- UNI

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