The Union government's much-publicised Overseas Citizen of India certificate scheme has evoked a lukewarm response.
NEW DELHI: The Union government's much-publicised Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) certificate scheme has evoked a lukewarm response with only 1.40 lakh people of Indian origin (PIO) opting for it since the scheme was launched one and half years back.
"Out of 1.40 lakh OCI card holders, 67,021 PIOs are from the US while about 15,000 are from Australia, about 14,000 from the UK and 13,000 from Canada," a senior official of Union Home Ministry said on Thursday.
OCI is like a passport with a life-long visa with unlimited entries. Beside seeking employment, the OCI card holder can buy property or make investment in India.
About the other facilities, the official said, OCI card-holder gets exemption from registration with local police authorities for any length of stay in India.
Apart from UK, US, Canada and Australia, there are also applicants from Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand, and other European countries though the number is less.
To a question why the OCI offer to PIOs have not gained the momentum as expected by the government the official attributed it to the poor publicity in foreign countries.
"Though it has been well publicised in India we need to do the same in abroad also," said the official.
Notwithstanding the slow response, the government is considering one more facility for card holders under which change of address would not lead to cancellation of the OCI card.
Earlier the OCI scheme was limited to countries that allow dual citizenship. Now it has been extended to about 70 countries.
US, France, Phillipines, Britain, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia among others have provision of dual citizenship but China and Myanmar do not allow dual citizenship.
Before the OCI facility, the PIOs were only given PIO cards which were valid for 15 years. PIOs were not allowed to buy farm land or plantations.
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