Doaba: 30 deportation cases are processed daily, says RPO
The Regional Passport Officer shared that as many as 28-30 deportation cases were being processed daily majorly because of overstay or illegal immigration. Ministry of External Affairs, Regional Passport Officer Harmanbir Gill said, “There is so much deportation work in my office, which caters to nine districts of Punjab, that there is a 10-day waiting time to take up cases. I am daily attending to 28-30 deportation cases transferred by our diplomatic missions abroad. Most people being repatriated are those from Canada, the US and the UK.” He said, “When the deported person appears before us, we assess his guilt on the basis of various reports coming to us via the missions and Intelligence Bureau. The amount of penalty that we impose on him under the Passport Act depends on the number and types of concealments he had made. We also recover the amount that the Indian Government spends on his ticket for bringing him back.” The RPO said, “These cases are besides those that our system catches on a regular basis when a deported person applies for a fresh passport. Since the entire data of deported persons is fed in our system, they automatically come under our scanner.” Joint Secretaries Raveen Kumar and Deepak Mittal said, “Since the number of people migrating from Punjab is more, so are the deportation cases. Of the nearly three crore NRIs, 25 lakh to 30 lakh are from Punjab.” -PTC News
