We
at GOPIO International are pleased to inform the members of
the Indian Diaspora that due to the overwhelming opposition to
the retroactive enforcement of the new rules, Government of
India has relented in retroactive enforcement of the new
rules.
The
latest notice posted on the website of Consul General of India
in New York and San Francisco, says, "In supercession of previous rules,
Government of India has decided that Persons of Indian origin
who have already acquired foreign citizenship up until 31 May
2010 will not be required to pay renunciation fees of USD
175.00, he/she will be required to pay miscellaneous fees of
USD 20.00 when getting the old Indian passport
cancelled/surrendered.
In
future those Indian citizens who acquire foreign citizenship
on or after 01 June 2010 will have to submit declaration of
renunciation of their Indian citizenship forms as given on
website and fees of USD 175.00."
On
May 23, 2010, the Global Organization of People of Indian
Origin (GOPIO International) initiated an on-line petition
addressed to the Prime Minister of India, titled "Opposition to Retroactive Enforcement of New Rules for
Surrender of Indian Passport". As of this date, close
to 29,000 people have signed this online petition to the
Prime Minister of India against the retroactive enforcement of
the new rules for surrender of Indian passports by naturalized
citizens of other countries. By signing the petition, the
former Indian citizens have expressed their strong opposition
to the new rules and have vented their anger and frustration
with their comments.
On May 28, 2010 GOPIO
International sent a letter to Prime Minister of India, Hon.
Dr Manmohan Singh, together with the first batch of over
19,000signatures of people supporting the petition (the pdf
file was about 1000 pages with signee names and comments),
with the following requests:
1. To reconsider the retroactive enforcement
of the new rules as many thousands of people could suffer
undue and unnecessary hardship for no fault of their own.
Indians who have been naturalized for years should be given
the same 90 days window to obtain "surrender certificate" as
being allowed to those Indians who become citizens of other
countries now, without payment of fee or penalty.
2. To reduce the service fee from $175 to a
reasonable amount of $25 (USD) after the first 90
days
GOPIO International congratulates
community activists, organization heads, individual
volunteers, Indian American media (special menion of PTI, TV
Asia, ITV, Asianet, Kairali, India Abroad, News India Times,
Indian Express, India West, Indian Express, India Journal,
Indian Panorama, Voice of Asia, and several other regional
language community newspapers) and media supporters in
India, who all banded together and unanimously condemned the
retroactive enforcement of the new rules for obtaining
"surrender certificate." Their individual and collective
efforts created quick and informative awareness against the
retroactive enforcement of the new rules. In one
week, close to 29,000 people went on line and signed
GOPIO initiated on-line petition which was addressed to the
Prime Minister of India. There were many people, who in
addition to signing the on-line petition, also vented their
feelings in their emails directly to the secretary of Ministry of Overseas Indian
Affairs (MOIA) and
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
We at GOPIO International acknowledge and
appreciate the overwhelming support from the global Indian
community from all corners of the world. We believe that this
massive level of support made a tremendous difference in the
outcome of our appeal - retraction of the enforcement of the
new rules. We also acknowledge the efforts of Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
(MOIA) and Ministry of
External Affairs (MEA) to respond to our concerns promptly and
take remedial action.
We
do not as yet have the complete details of the announcement by
the Government of India, but it appears that the latest
posting on the Consulate website shows reduction of fee to $20
for "surrender certificate" for majority of people who are
naturalized citizens outside India.
Support for GOPIO's Petitiononline
was much beyond our expectation. After people received
GOPIO Special News Bulletin on May. 23rd, everyone took upon
themselves to forward to their relatives and friends. It was
heartetning to note that we received overwhelming support.
Therefore, it was a people's campaign, GOPIO just
acted as the conduit and provided the platform. We thank you
for your support and we hope you will join us in our future
endeavors. As this campaign is over, we are
also discontinuing the current Petitiononline drive. If
there are still any major issue which has not been resolved,
we will take it with the Ministry of Overseas Indian
Affairs to resolve them. We will also continue to work
closely with our Indian missions around the world to promote
interests of the overseas Indian community and India.
For more information, please contact GOPIO International at
+1-818-708-3885, Email: GOPIO-Intl@sbcglobal.net.
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