RIYADH, 19 September 2005 — Pointing out that non-resident Indians in the Kingdom remit $4 billion annually back home, Indian Ambassador M.O.H. Farook called upon his countrymen to utilize the hard-earned money carefully and wisely
The envoy was addressing a packed audience of more than 5,000 Tamil-speaking Indians and Sri Lankans at a function organized by the Riyadh Tamil Society (Riyadh Tamil Sangam) at the International Indian School (Girls Section) on Thursday.
“Every dependent of the 1.5 million workers in the Kingdom should know that these foreign remittances are the sweat and blood of the workers here,” Farook said, exhorting the payees to cultivate the saving habit and scale back their bloated expenditure in their homeland.
He noted that 90 percent of the Indian population are low income group earners and they should derive the value for money earned in the Kingdom. The diplomat said he was pleased with the performance of Indian students at public examinations. “There are 35,000 students in the Kingdom and those sitting for the CBSE examination have done well in these examinations,” he said.
The function was organized to hold a Patti Manram (Debating Session) where three prominent India debaters were flown in. India’s renowned speakers Solomon Papaiyah, Professor M. Ramachandran and N. Rajah took part in the debating session. Sri Lankan Ambassador A.M.J. Sadiq and Indian MP Robert Bellarmin for Nagercoil were guests of honor at the function.