In an effort to help Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in the Gulf States, particularly Saudi Arabia, a senior leader from the Southern Indian State of Andhra Pradesh hosted a detail interaction session with the heads of community leaders at the Indian consulate here today convened by the Consulate on the request of Government of Andhra Pradesh.
Presiding at the meeting, Mohammed Khaleequr Rahman, member state level committee of A.P. Waqf Board Computerization and Digitization Project touched various NRIs schemes launched by the government of India in general and the A.P. state government in particular for the rehabilitation of returnees following the Nitaqat ruling against the undocumented workers in the Kingdom. Khaleequr Rahman thanked the Ambassador and the Consulate and the entire team of officials for their commendable job and applauded their efforts which helped the NRIs with the illegal status to correct their status. Khaleequr Rahman also thanked the Ambassador and the Consulate General for having organized the Job fairs to help the NRIs find the jobs affected by the Nitaqat.
“Although I am here on an official fact-finding mission of NRIs to know more about the subject related to the outcome of nationalization or Nitaqat law and at the same time it should be taken in the context of humanitarian aspect rather than affiliation to any political circle”, Rahman said. Later he dealt in length about the various welfare schemes initiated by the union government and the state government for the betterment of NRIs especially predominated by the minority section of the society.
Referring to the recent visits of the two high-ranking officials led by Vayalar Ravi and E. Ahamad, Ministers of Overseas Affairs and soon after by Salman Khurshid Foreign Minister, government of India, Rahman said, India has taken the Nitaqat law on a very positive note as it was initiated to correct the status of the foreign workers rather than to get-rid of them, as appeared in some section of the press. “Nitaqat would certainly eliminate the middleman, who often believed to be misguiding the eligible jobseekers by their selfish motives, and thus it would certainly pave the way for a fair and just agreement between the employee and the employer”, Rahman remarked.
Recalling his earlier visit, Rahman said it was due to the proper representation from you community leaders especially by Aijaz Ahmed Khan, the Chairman of United Andhra Pradesh Forum who played a timely and crucial role in highlighting the issues of NRIs to the government of India, underlining the term ‘dignity’ and ‘respect’ of each individual Indians to be honored who has served this Kingdom with much dedication and their longstanding services..
While detailing the various measures, Rahman emphasized the importance of the launch of the web portal by the state government led by Non-Resident Indian Affairs Minister of Government of Andhra Pradesh D. Sridhar Babu that comes in the backdrop of many demands made by certain political outfits and the NRIS with the objective of providing NRIs hailing from Andhra Pradesh with an opportunity to interact with the state government back home in India and to redress their grievances by collecting information and data regarding their rehabilitation in accordance to their eligibilities and also provide necessary help for the online attestation of educational certificates/documents pertaining to their livelihoods and to put an end to the black-listed brokers involved in illegal immigration of workers.
Rahman said that the state government is setting up the NRIs welfare fund and the monies received from the NRIs towards the fees charged for the attestation of the documents and the certificates would be transferred to the NRIs welfare fund. Presently the government receives about 10 Million Rupees per year towards this fees.
Speaking about the other employment mission, Rahman informed the members with regard to the Rajiv Yuva Karnalu (RYK) Scheme which aims to offer around 1.5 million vacancies in the private sector and around 100,000 in government departments. This will be offered to the skill trainees and placements for all its associates through RYK scheme.
Members of the United Andhra Pradesh Forum (UAPF), Urdu Academy Jeddah (UAJ), Indian Youth Welfare Association (IYWA), Indian Engineering Forum (IEF) and host of others participated in this informative session that had also given them the opportunity to raise one-to-one queries pertaining to the NRIs welfare measures. Rahman assured the
members that he would definitely follow-up their complaints and issues with the higher authorities and do his best to resolve it in an amicable manner.