A long-standing demand of the Indian American community.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: The Indian government has decided to make into law a long-standing demand of the Indian American community: to merge the OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) and PIO (Person of Indian Origin) cards. The announcement will be made by the prime minister Narendra Modi when he visits the US later this week.
The UPA government had decided couple of years back to merge the cards but could not make it a reality. The Economic Times reported that the Principal Secretary to Modi, Nripendra Misra, had convened a meeting of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs officials on Tuesday to brainstorm the matter ahead of the prime minister’s trip.
It was decided that there will be a speedy implementation of the merger of the two cards to facilitate travel of Indians staying abroad and their participation in various activities in India.
“The Indian Americans have contributed heavily to Modi’s electoral success and presenting his case in the USA. They figure high on Modi’s agenda and the PM would like to involve them more in India’s growth story,” a government source said, reported the Times.
PIO cards are issued to individuals who are either citizens or naturalized citizens of a country, but are of Indian origin, through their parents. OCI cards are given to those who have taken citizenship in other countries, apart from India, but have Indian origin roots. The OCI cards are practically visas that enable its holders to enter India for an indefinite period, while PIO card holders have to apply for separate visas. The merger of these two cards could make PIO card holders also eligible for the benefits that are enjoyed by OCI card holders, said the report.
It was envisaged that merger of the card would facilitate visa-free travel to India, rights of residency and participation in business and educational activities in the country.
Indian American community organizations in the US have long taken up the issue, out of sheer frustration with the Indian Consulates, especially in New York, who never did an adequate job of taking care of the problems of the community, with complaints of Indian officials acting in an irresponsible manner, and even indulging in corruption. Matters have gotten worse in the last two years.
When the visa and passport services were finally outsourced, the misery remained, with first BLS International, and the present service provider Cox and Kings Ltd. – who take care of the OCI and PIO related issues and visas, while BLS continue to handle passport related issues – proving poor, shoddy service, and denting the image of the Indian government. It also led to a drop in tourism, as many foreigners just gave up the idea of visiting India instead of having to go through the services of BLS International and Cox and Kings.
One community organization who has been at the forefront of trying to fix issues is the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), who have held a series of meetings with Indian Consulate officials in New York and Cox and Kings, to fix growing complaints like officials can’t be reached over the phone and their tracking systems did not work well. Other complaints included the outsourcing agencies losing passports, not sending the documents back by mail or FedEx even though it was paid for, unusual waiting time at their offices, waiting in the street for hours to get into the office, and discourteous security.
Recently, officials of Cox and Kings Ltd. held meetings with GOPIO officials in New York and Washington, DC. The GOPIO delegation was represented by its founder president Dr. Thomas Abraham, GOPIO-CT immediate past president Shailesh Naik, GOPIO-CT vice president Varghese Ninan, GOPIO-CT treasurer Viresh Sharma and GOPIO founding life member Ramesh Kalicharan.
Cox and Kings agreed with GOPIO officials that there were problems after the take over from BLS because of the backlog of over 18,000 passports in New York alone and similar numbers in other centers. They says they have sorted out many of the issues, changed security guards and now want to work with the community to remedy these problems.
GOPIO has said they will monitor services provided by Cox and Kings and will work with them to sort out any remaining issues. GOPIO has appointed its Associate Secretary Jaswant Mody to receive any complaints from the community at jmody@yahoo.com with a copy to gopio@optonline.net
Modi’s announcement to merge the OCI and PIO cards will go a long way in assuaging the hurt sentiments of the Indian American community who felt they had to put up with the shoddy service provided by the Indian government with no remedy in sight.