Home Ministry listens to problems faced by Pakistani refugees; HJS participates
Additional Secretary B. K. Prasad being handed over the representation
by HJS activists – Shri. Chandra Prakash and Shri. Sudhendu Talukdar
New Delhi: The additional Secretary of Home Ministry B. K. Prasad stated that the Central Government was actively examining cases of people who have come from Pakistan for getting long-term VISA and speedily processing their application for Indian citizenship. The difficulties faced in this matter would be soon sorted out. A meeting was held by the Central Home Ministry to understand the problems faced by Hindu refugees from Pakistan and it was during this meeting that the assurances were made. Many organizations handling matters related to obtaining VISA as well as Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) were invited by Home Ministry for the meeting.
Participants presented their difficulties in obtaining VISA while B K Prasad and Joint Secretary of Home Ministry, Gopalkrushnan Dwiwedi explained about the decisions taken by their Ministry to solve the VISA related problems. Ms. Sandip kaur Munjal of HJS suggested that the Central Government should lay down a policy in connection with VISA besides submitting some demands in this context.
Letter from Home Ministry addressed to HJS amongst others to discuss the problems of Pakistani Hindu Refugees in connection with long term visas and citizenship issues
Demands made by HJS –
1. Refugees coming from Pakistan seeking shelter should be given VISA in 48 hours.
2. Minorities coming to India for religious purpose, may be extended special facilities.
3. After granting VISA, citizenship can be granted within few days. Facilities such as accommodation, reservation etc. should also be extended to them.
4. Rules and regulations should be formulated for imposing restrictions on missionaries who come to India for conversion under the guise of tourists.
5. Special judicial system should be set up to drive out infiltrators living in India.
The meeting was attended by Shri. Muralidhar Makhija, the President of ‘Chattisgarh Sindhi Sahitya Sansthan’; Shri. Sudhindu Mohan Talukdar of ‘Sara Assam Bengali Jateeya Parishad’, Sou. Sandip kaur Munjal and Shri. Chandraprakash of HJS; advocates handling VISA related issues and representatives of few other organizations.
In this meeting, discussions were held only on citizens coming from Pakistan. Sou. Sandip kaur Munjal of HJS first raised the issue of Hindus coming from Bangladesh; however, no reply was given by the Home Ministry in this context. The additional Secretary B. K. Prasad, Home Department called representatives of HJS in another room after the meeting got over and explained to them that the issue regarding Hindus coming from Bangladesh was not given a thought but it would also be considered in future.
