Pb govt orders campaign against illegal travel agents

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal asked DGP S S Saini and IG, NRI Gurpreet Deo to launch a sustained campaign against the illegal travel agents.

Expressing concern over the plight of Punjabi youths who have been duped by agents and are in jail in various countries, Badal asked NRI department to approach External Affairs Ministry to seek details of such youth from all embassies so that the state government could extend legal help to them.

NRI Affairs Minister Bikram Singh Majithia raised the issue of rising number of cases of illegal agents duping the youth of the state by sending them abroad without any valid work permit in a meeting.

Badal, who presided the meeting, said it was the responsibility of law enforcing authorities to ensure that no agent without license from appropriate authority and clearance from Protector of Immigrants is allowed to operate.

The deputy chief minister asked the authorities to keep an eye on those agents who were issuing advertisements in vernacular newspapers without giving their complete address and launch a drive against them.

Badal asked the home department to present Human Trafficking Act in this ensuing session of Vidhan Sabha to give teeth to the law enforcement authorities against illegal agents, an official release said here.

Badal sought a weekly report from every district SSP and asked IG, NRI Affairs to personally monitor the campaign so that challans against them could be filed in the court timely by making the case water-tight.

Asking Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) to put up a scheme for providing 10 per cent reservation in all residential colonies to NRIs, Badal said it should be approved by PUDA in next meeting.