‘Missing NRIs’ on Punjab radar, to seek Centre’s help
ACS (home) Chandra will take up issue with foreign and aviation ministries
CHANDIGARH: With a view to locating the ‘missing NRIs’, the Punjab government on Wednesday decided to take up the issue with external affairs and aviation ministries seeking details of the non-resident Indians and foreign travellers who visited Punjab and went back during the past one month.
Additional chief secretary (ACS-home) Satish Chandra has been asked to immediately take up the matter with the central departments so that the state can have the exact idea about how many NRIs and other foreign travellers are still in the state, health minister Balbir Sidhu told Hindustan Times.
According to a statement issued by chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday, nearly 94,000 NRIs and others travellers from various countries visited Punjab during the
past around one month. Nearly 30,000 of them have been put under ‘quarantine’ and are being continuously monitored.
The state government claims that the local administration has been able to track most of the NRIs, but state helplines and local police continue to get information about the presence of many such people in the villages who have not informed the local administration about their arrival.
“There are some cases in which we could not trace these NRIs as the addresses on their passports were different. In certain cases, some NRIs and foreign travellers have not updated their status with the local authorities.
Some of them have returned to the countries where they stay or work. Once we come to know about their number, we will be able to get the number of those who are still left in Punjab,” Sidhu said.
As NRIs and foreign-returned persons have remained the sole carrier of COVID-19 virus to India, Punjab has already raised alarm over a large number of NRIs who visited the state during the past one month.
GOGS CONTROL ROOM
Even as teams of local civil and police administration are visiting various villages and seeking help of sarpanches to locate the NRIs and foreign-returned persons, in many cases, the feedback has been biased.
“Sarpanches have their political affiliations and rivalries. In some cases, it has emerged that they concealed the identity of some NRIs and foreign travellers or deliberately gave wrong information to settle their own scores.
Therefore, an independent control room of guardians of governance (GoGs) will be set up tomorrow to have independent feedback from the villages,” a health department official monitoring the process said.
Nearly 6,000 GoGs, all ex-servicemen, are already working in the state monitoring developmental projects of the government at the village level.
The NRIs under quarantine will remain under observation till they complete the 14 days of isolation, said an official.
› There are some cases in which we could not trace these NRIs as the addresses on their passports were different. In certain cases, some NRIs and foreign travellers have not updated their status with the authorities.
BALBIR SIDHU, state health minister