Many NRIs ask about the “Single Window” system of addressing their queries. What is your view on this?

It is not working effectively. In fact there is no single window system for the NRIs in the country. There are single window systems for the individuals and companies started by various states. Kerala has designated a Minister for NRI Affairs and it is one of those few states that is working in an exemplary fashion for NRIs. The Andhra Pradesh combined state (before bifurcation) had a NRI cell, but not a minister. I think the experience of Kerala, Punjab and Gujarat must be extended to all other states with larger Indian diaspora. If you look at it, the confusion is created by the OCI and the PIO card. Also the initial announcement of visa on arrival was not honoured. I was on a vacation with my daughter in January. She is a US citizen studying in Italy, so she wanted to come to India with me to visit India and meet her grandparents. We were coming from Prague to France. When we landed in Paris they did not allow us to board the onward flight to India. I said that there is visa on arrival but the authorities told me that we were supposed to apply online first and get a visa by sending the documents online which takes 72 hours. You receive the visa on email and you have to carry the print out with you in order to board the flight. So, it is visa online not visa on arrival. This is why I believe that single window system is very important because the announcement and practical implementation has a huge gap.

Can you give us some more examples?

Many Indians are facing so many problems. The incident that I narrated earlier happened with me. Similar instances have happened with many NRIs who got into trouble. While coming to India from US via Dubai, they were stopped and could not travel further to India due to similar confusion. The single window system is required because if somebody unfortunately passes away, until they spend 7,000-10,000 US dollars they cannot bring the body home. So, all these people become dependent on the overseas Indian organizations for aid. In some special cases that I represented, about 31 people were struck at Jordan, Afghanistan and various other countries where they went on some work visas. They were brought back by the UPA Government under special case. Similarly, in Gulf countries there was an amnesty program, so at that time state of Andhra Pradesh was given one time ticket and got around 300-400 people back on plane to Hyderabad. These are some of the problems that I have listed which explains the single window system is the urgent requirement at this time.

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NRIs feel harassed by court cases taking too long to resolve, particularly those related to their property. As a lawyer yourself, what do you think can be done to expedite?

About 5.2 crore cases are pending in Indian courts. I myself have gone through the same problem, as a lawyer I represented so many cases. A friend of mine came from Chicago and got stuck in court. Somebody took Rs 5 crore to sell some property and instead of the promised 5 acres, sold only 2 acres. So in such cases you have to deal with police commissioners, chief minister and court complaints and finally the case got resolved. But how many innocent NRIs have this kind of access? So, the delay in court cases is a huge problem. Also, many NRIs marry Indians and take them to their respective countries and at times leave them after the marriage in India itself and leave the country and later send the divorce notices to their spouses. In stances of many civil cases, children custody and separation cases Indian brides are cheated left and right. In case investments, many NRIs are cheated in cases of double registration, fake property locations and at times that are shown very nice properties on the web but at the time of delivery, the investors realize that the property does not exist. The delivery at times is delayed by years, so such delays are causing huge problems.