Pravasi meet begins, property-related issues dominate Day 1

A plethora of issues ranging from cheating by builders to complexities involved in succession and inheritance of properties dominated the first day of the annual Pravasi Bhartiya Divas attended by nearly 1,500 delegates from over 40 countries.

Issues like red tape in approval of investment proposals and bottlenecks in acquiring land for various projects were also raised strongly by the delegates who called for simplifying procedures to facilitate their involvement in India's development.

A group of NRIs from the US, the UK, Australia and some Gulf countries strongly raised the issue of non-delivery of flats sold to them by Maytas Properties, the real estate firm promoted by kin of disgraced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju.

"More than one year has passed but not a single brick moved into Maytas Hill County in Hyderabad. Over 300 NRIs are trapped into this tragedy and the government has done nothing," claimed Srinivas Reddy, an NRI from Britain.

Assuring the diaspora of all possible help, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Minister of State for External Affairs Praneet Kaur said the government would address all the grievances of NRIs and PIOs.

They were speaking at a conference on property- related disputes of the diaspora community.