PANDURANG GAONKAR
PANAJI
The State government hopes to unite Goans across the world, at least, in the form of a unique database.
The State government’s NRI commission will embark on an ambitious database to compile details of Goan NRIs located all over the world, with an aim to render assistance to them in times of crisis and emergency.
The Director for NRI Affairs has already prepared a proposal in this regard and is expected to begin the project shortly.
“This database will be first of its kind,” Anthony D’Souza, Director for NRI Affairs told The Goan.
At present, the State government and the NRI commission has little information regarding the number of Goan NRIs settled abroad and has had to work with rough and sketchy estimates about these Goan NRIs from various Goan associations located abroad.
The two types of Goan NRIs are those with Indian citizenship and working abroad (especially in the Gulf) and those settled abroad with foreign citizenship with OCI status.
The NRI commission has had difficulties in ascertaining details of Goan NRI especially while rendering assistance in emergency situations, when sought by a Goan family, organisation or authorities abroad.
It is estimated that there are about 5 lakh Goan NRIs residing across the world, especially in the UK, Portugal, other EU countries, Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, the Gulf and parts of Africa.
“Goans over the world could be in need of any assistance from the State government. But to provide them the necessary support, we need a database of Goan NRIs, which would include their passport details and family information”, said D’Souza.
This would be helpful to us in rendering immediate assistance in times of crisis.”
“A small amount will be charged as fee while gathering information and every Goan NRI will have a special identity number. However, this is purely a voluntarily exercise,” said D’Souza.
