MARGAO
There was big rush, right from politicians to government officials, to welcome and claim credit for the MEA order that passport revocation order will also be accepted for issuing Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) status.
Sadly, revoked passport holders says it’s now a month since the MEA circular was issued last month, but the Foreign Regional Registration Office, Mumbai has maintained that the office is yet to receive an official communication regarding acceptance of revocation certificates for OCI card application.
In fact, Goans for Goa (GFG) has stated that the MEA had come out with a circular on April 4 last to all its Regional Passport officers and Indian Missions, stating that hence forth the MHA/ FRRO office will be issuing OCI status to all revoked passport holders, based on the revoked passport certificate/order.
“While this came as a big relief to the revoked passport holders, it’s very disheartening to note that, it’s a month since the internal circular came into effect, but the MHA FRRO office has turned down all applications, stating that the MHA office has received no such circular/ instructions from the MEA office till date,” stated GFG convenor Kennedy Afonso.
He said this is causing panic among the revoked passport holders, leaving them to wonder if this is just another election jumla that was created to get votes by fooling the public.
Kennedy informed that when the GFG called up the CMs office some days back, they said a notification will appear on the Official Gazette, which till date has not happened.
Saying that further queries revealed that it will appear after elections, the GFG sought to know from the office of the NRI commissioner/ or the CMs office what does after elections mean? “Will the notification appear after the voting on the 7th May in Goa, or will the revoked passport holders have to wait till the elections results are out?, the GFG demanded to know, while demanding that the answers to these questions should be made by May 5 as this will have a significant outcome of the election result.
