Punjab to provide legal assistance to students facing deportation from Canada: Dhaliwal

Chandigarh: Punjab NRI affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal has said that the government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will provide free legal assistance to around 700 students facing deportation from Canada. Most of these students belong to Punjab and they will be assisted by lawyers who are experts in immigration laws in Canada. Along with this, Dhaliwal has also written a letter to all MPs of Punjab origin in Canada to solve the issue of these students so that the future of the children can be secured.

Instructs to verify documents of travel agents and immigration agencies by July 10

Presiding over a high-level meeting with civil and police officers associated with NRI department at Punjab Bhawan, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal issued instructions to all Deputy Commissioners and SSPs to scrutinize the documents of travel agents and immigration agencies and send a report by July 10. He expressed concern that many travel agents are running immigration agencies illegally.

Dhaliwal said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has already given clear instructions to improve the system. He said that if the system would be transparent and clean, then there will be less scope for human trafficking by illegal travel/immigration agencies. He said that a special campaign against fake travel agents/immigration agencies would soon be launched in Punjab so that no one could be involved in human trafficking.

Dhaliwal also said that in the last 10 years, if any immigrant Punjabi has been deliberately implicated in a wrong case, then it should be brought to their attention. Such cases will be investigated and justice will be given to the victim.

Taking an exclusive initiative, this time NRI meetings will be held for the first time in those villages of Punjab whose immigrants have done good work in their villages or earned  the name at the national or international level. Dhaliwal informed that NRI meetings to be held at the district level from July 15 to August 30. He invited all NRPs (Non Resident Punjabis) to bring their problems during NRI meetings and efforts will be made to solve every problem on the spot.

He instructed the police and civil officials in strict words that the grievances of the migrant Punjabis, which have not been resolved so far, should be settled by June 30. A total of 609 complaints were received in the first NRI meeting, out of which 522 have been resolved while 87 complaints are pending.

Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal also informed that there is a plan to bring a new NRI policy by September 30 to resolve all kinds of problems and complaints of NRPs. He said that the contribution of migrant Punjabis cannot be ignored in fulfilling the dream of making the state ‘Rangla Punjab’ by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. He said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will soon launch the new and more convenient website of the NRI department.

In the meeting, Principal Secretary of NRI department Dilip Kumar, Secretary Kanwal Preet Brar, Jalandhar Division Commissioner-cum-Chairperson NRI Sabha Jalandhar Gurpreet Kaur Sapra, ADGP NRI Wing Praveen K. Sinha and the nodal officers of all the districts were present.