THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 6 October 2007 — Kerala is planning to enact a new law to set up a welfare fund and launch a pension scheme for nonresident Keralites who plan to retire, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said.

“The government will examine all possibilities about setting up such a welfare fund for Malayalees returning to their native place from abroad,” he told the state assembly.

Achuthanandan, who is also in charge of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA), said the government would provide educational assistance to the children of those who died in foreign countries.

The chief minister said NORKA-Roots, the company functioning under the NORKA Department had been given license for recruiting people for foreign countries. Concerning the shortage of Malayalee staff in embassies and NORKA department he said the government would take the issue very seriously.

To another question he said the government would give equal importance to all the three international airports in the state and would urge airline companies to operate more flights from Kozhikode to Gulf destinations. Achuthanandan said the state government would streamline the recruitment process to stop illegal hiring of workers by firms in the Gulf.

“Besides NORKA-Roots, we also have the state-owned Overseas Development and Employment Promotional Consultants Limited (ODEPC),” he said. “We have also begun talks with Indian embassies in the Gulf to see that new recruitments are made through state-owned agencies. State-to-state recruitment is what we want and our talks are beginning to yield results,” Achuthanandan added.

The chief minister said his government was coordinating with the central government and the Indian embassies to improve the condition of Keralite laborers. He said a separate cell would be set up in Kerala police to handle all cases registered against recruitment agencies accused of cheating people.

Achuthanandan said Air Kerala International Services of the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) could not take off as the federal aviation authorities refused to grant permission.

The chief minister said Air-India has informed him that it would soon launch direct flights from Kerala to the US and Air Dravida and Pegasus Airways would launch domestic flights connecting other Indian cities.

Industries minister Elamaram Kareem said several Gulf-based investors have evinced interest in setting up petrochemical complex, power projects, knowledge parks and meters manufacturing units.

Passport Facilitation Centers

The federal government has approved a proposal to set up two of the 68 passport facilitation centers being planned across the country by the end of 2008 in Malabar.

The passport offices would outsource the initial processing of applications from these centers, according to the Kozhikode Passport Officer C.K. Damodaran. The centers to be opened by private companies will deal with all the front-end activities such as verification process prior to the issuance of passports from the main office.