The Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has taken exception to the increasing disunity among nor resident Keralites in their adopted lands.
Addressing the public meeting organized as part of the Kerala Convention of Federation of Malyalee Associations in America (FOMAA), the Chief Minister pointed out that earlier, concerned political leadership in Kerala used to look up to the non resident Malayalees for their unity and contribution to their adopted country. However, the picture has been drastically changed today with groupism becoming rampant among expatriate communities, he said.
The Chief Minister stressed the need to nip such tendencies in the bud itself and pointed out at a united Malayalee community could contribute much to Kerala’s development needs. One key area would be infrastructure sector which needed heavy investment. That the development efforts faced certain inherent bottlenecks like lack of funds for projects in the public sector and the outbreaks of controversies. The non resident Keralites who were more conversant with the State would be able to play a major role here, he said.
KPCC(I) president Ramesh Chennithala, P J Kurian, and others also spoke.
Earlier inaugurating the convention, Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs said that the pension scheme for non resident Indians would be implemented from this year itself. All those who go abroad seeking emigration clearance would become members of the welfarenet, he said.
As per the contributory pension scheme, the beneficiary would have to remit a fixed amount. This would be reciprocated by the Central government with an equal amount. However, in the case of women, the government share of remittance to the scheme would be double the quantum paid by the beneficiary, he said.
John Baby Uralil, president, FOMAA, chaired the session. Anto Antony MP, Mons Joseph, MLA, M K Premachandran, former diplomat T P Sreenivasan, FOMAA general secretary Benoy Thomas and others spoke.
