The government intends to give voting rights to Indian passport holders working and living abroad, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
“It is always the intention of the government to confer voting rights to the Indian passport holders who are working and living abroad for more than one or two years,” he said during Question Hour.
The matter will be taken up with the Election Commission, he said adding that the Prime Minister has already said it is under the consideration of the government.
Mr. Ravi, however, made it clear that voting rights can be given only to Indian passport holders working abroad and nobody else.
To a supplementary on deletion of names from voters list of workers having Indian passports working abroad, he said, “Under the rules of the Representation of Peoples Act, those who are absent for more than six months, their names will be deleted.”
On the issue of holders of Overseas Cards (OC) not being allowed entry at Indian airports, he said, “about 10 such cases have been reported to us. What happened is they (Overseas Citizens) changed the passports.... Unfortunately these friends who come from abroad have come with new passports.
“They are not having old passports with them. That is the reason why they have been detained. But they have been allowed to go later.... We are discussing how to sort out the matter,” he added.
