Headlines
Sops for Kerala diaspora in governor's address
Thiruvananthapuram, March 6
The Kerala
government announced a slew of measures for the Kerala diaspora,
including setting up of a NRI Commission and beginning recruitment for
jobs in Middle East countries, outlined in Kerala Governor
P.Sathasivam's address to the state assembly on Friday.
"Visa
cheating and criminal offences against the life and property of
non-resident Keralites (NRK) has become a very serious problem today. My
government has decided to establish a NRI Commission to deal with such
cases exclusively and effectively. My government has initiated steps to
start the recruitment of persons to various Gulf countries by government
agencies," said Sathasivam.
Incidentally, it was the first address by Sathasivam to the assembly after becoming the governor last year.
However,
the Left opposition walked out of the assembly as soon as Sathasivam
rose to read out the government's policies for the year.
Leader
of opposition V.S. Achuthanandan rose at the same time as the governor
and was heard speaking a few sentences which were not audible.
The
governor smiled and paused for a while before going on to read his
address as the entire Left opposition walked out of the house.
The
Left opposition has made it clear that they will not allow "tainted"
Kerala Finance Minister K.M. Mani, currently facing a vigilance probe in
the "bar scam case", to present his 13th budget on March 13.
Sathasivam pointed out that Kerala is hugely indebted to the NRK's for their contribution to Kerala.
"The
total remittance of NRK's to Kerala is more than Rs.90,000 crores, over
and above the NRK deposits of about Rs.97,400 crores in the various
financial institutions as on 30th September last year," said Sathasivam.
The most recent study conducted by K.C. Zachariah and S.
Irudayarajan of the Centre for Development Studies revealed that the
number of Kerala emigrants as of 2014 was 23.63 lakh, with 90 percent
residing in various Middle East countries.
The only state in the
country that has set up a NRI (non-resident Indian) Commission is
Punjab and Kerala has already studied its functioning. The announcement
to set up such a Commission is expected to be made next Friday when Mani
presents the budget for the next fiscal.
The NRI Commission
would have the status of a quasi-judicial body and the diaspora could
engage lawyers, who would be appearing before the Commission on their
behalf.