Punjab to set up toll-free call centre for NRIs
Chandigarh: Punjab will have 24-hour toll-free call centre for live and on-the-spot redressal of problems and grievances of the Punjabis settled across the globe. The centre, a bilingual facility in Punjabi and English, comes as a follow-up of the decisions taken during the NRI Sammelan held in Chandigarh and Jalandhar in January this year.
Harcharan Bains, media adviser to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, said in addition to the call centre, the NRI-specific official website of the state government would also function as back-up for the government-to-NRI interaction.
About 70 lakh NRIs of Punjabi origin are settled in different parts of the world, with Canada, the UK, the USA, Malaysia, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain and some countries in the West Asia being the favoured destinations.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in the government of India for putting in place a structured mechanism for the welfare of Punjabis going to or already settled in different countries across the world. The MoU was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister with chief secretary Ramesh Inder Singh and K. Mohan Das, secretary, Ministry of Overseas India Affairs, representing the state and the Union governments, respectively. Although the major thrust of the MoU is at creating awareness among the Punjabis about problems faced in migration and employment-related issues, one of its key clauses concerns imparting vocational skills to aspiring emigrants.
Short-duration skill-training courses will be organised keeping in mind country-specific demand for skilled workforce from Punjab. The MoU also provides for a stepped-up co-ordination between Punjab and the Central government on legal aspects of migration from the state. It also seeks a joint initiative for setting up help centres for solving immigration related problems at various airports and for providing emergency documentation in case of loss of passports abroad, said Bains.
The MoU lists the broad outlines of the programme for training prospective emigrants at identified training centres through three tracks, namely training through the centres of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Private Partners and recognised non-government organisations and the state government.
