Amarinder hails pruning of blacklist of overseas Indians

Punjab Congress Chief Amarinder Singh today welcomed the pruning of a blacklist maintained by the Centre imposing visa restrictions on Sikhs settled abroad.
"These lists were made during the dark days and Punjab has fortunately moved ahead," he said, adding, "anybody who wants to come back to the country as a peaceful and law abiding person should not face any problem."
Amarinder suggested that the Centre should take a more liberal view in the matter as people have moved ahead with time.
Amarinder also said those people who had gone abroad on the pretext of "seeking political asylum" should also be allowed to visit the country if they wish to.

The Prime Minister's intervention on pruning of the list came after Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal wrote a letter urging him to remove names of 36 Sikhs settled overseas from the "secret blacklist", maintained by the government.