NRIs demand provision for nominating representative to Par

 London, Sep 18 (PTI) Indian government must make Constitutional provision for nominating a representative of non-resident Indians to the country's Parliament, a prominent leader of the Indian Overseas Congress (London) UK has said. NRIs holding Indian passports must have their representative in the Parliament and the Indian Government must make constitutional provision for it, D L Kalhan, President of Indian Overseas Congress (London) UK, said.
 He made the remarks last night at a reception hosted in honour of Gulchain Singh Charak, permanent invitee to Congress Working Committee and in-charge of Punjab, Chandigarh and Bihar Congress.
 Kalhan said the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) was instrumental in getting the voting rights for NRIs holding Indian Passport.
 He regretted that no one was paying any heed to tap NRI voting or the influence they could have back home. Answering a question regarding the demand for NRI representation in Indian parliament, Charak said the matter needed a thorough study and he would take it up with the concerned authorities. Addressing the gathering, Charak said a series of measures have been taken recently to strengthen the Congress in Punjab and Bihar and expressed the confidence that the party would secure absolute majority in Punjab in the assembly elections expected in February next.
 The atmosphere in Punjab is in favour of Congress and the party will come back to power with a good majority, he said. Noting that Congress has adopted a policy of zero tolerance as far as corruption is concerned, Charak said the party has not pardoned any person facing corruption charges.
 He claimed the people in Punjab were fed up of the Akali Government because of its misrule, lawlessness and corruption. The people are in favour of Congress party because they want a secular government and only Congress could provide it.
 He said Congress party would organise parivartan yatra (movement for change) from October 1 in all the 170 assembly constituencies in Punjab.
Virendra Sharma, leading Labour MP, Manjit Lit, Chairman of the IOC, Councillor Sunil Chopra, General Secretary of IOC, Councillor Ajmer Dhillon, senior Vice President of the IOC and Councillor Satpal Parmar, spoke on the occasion. Prominent among those who attended the event were leading NRI solicitor Hari Singh, well known physician Dharmendra Tripathi and entrepreneur J S Malhotra.