Andhra CM urged to set up ministry for NRIs

Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), especially NRIs from Andhra Pradesh, have appealed to the new chief minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, to form an 'NRI ministry' to cater to the needs of NRIs.

At present, Kerala is the only state in the country to have a separate ministry for NRIs.

Khaja Quadeer Anwar and Mohd Haseebullah, organisers of the second NRI convention to be held in the city this year, called on Rajasekhara Reddy immediately after he was sworn in as the chief minister, and invited him to be the chief guest at the convention.

According to them, Reddy had agreed to be the chief guest at the NRI convention and assured them that he would act positively on their demand for a separate NRI ministry.

Disclosing this in a press release here, Khaja Quadeer Anwar, founder-director of The Indian Doctors, Engineers, Architects and Accountants Society (IDEAS), the largest network of Indian professionals abroad, and Mohd Haseebullah, chief executive officer for the NRI Convention and Festival 2004, said there were 22.5 million NRIs living in various parts of the world.

In Saudi Arabia alone there are 1.6 million NRIs, making it the single largest country of NRI population in the world.

Of the NRI population in Saudi Arabia, a majority of them hail from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

"There are 5.5 million NRIs from Andhra Pradesh all over the world. There is a need to address their issues. Unlike many NRIs in the US and other countries, the NRIs in the Gulf cannot solve their problems in the Gulf as they do not get citizenship. They cannot even buy a property there and their children cannot study beyond 12th standard in the Gulf. Hence, the students need to return to India at one stage or the other and they face plenty of problems locally," the press release said.

Hence, a separate ministry for NRIs is needed to take care of their welfare, Haseebullah said.

Explaining the contribution of the Gulf NRIs, Khaja quoted former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as saying that when the foreign exchange reserves of India last year crossed $ 100 billion, the Gulf NRIs alone accounted for 50 per cent of it.

"Hence we demand that the state government think seriously of starting a new ministry which will look after the interests of NRIs from the state," said Khaja.

IDEAS, in association with the Andhra Pradesh tourism ministry, is organising the second NRI Convention and Festival 2004 in Hyderabad from July 30 to August 1. Around 5,000 NRIs from eight countries are expected to attend this event.