TRIVANDRUM, 6 March 2005 — India will introduce electronic emigration clearance cards with two-year validity for overseas jobseekers leaving the country from May 1.
“The electronic clearance cards will obviate the need for multiple stamping on passports. All that the emigrants need to do is to swipe the card at the designated slots,” Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Jagdish Tytler said while inaugurating the Institute of Paramedical and Development Studies’ finishing schools in Cochin yesterday.
He said fly-by-night recruiting would be curbed. The licenses of all agencies that had not sent candidates in the past 10 years would be canceled.
Karunakaran Defies Congress Leadership; Action Against Son Likely
Veteran Kerala Congress party leader K. Karunakaran yesterday rejected the leadership’s demand to call off the rallies organized by his faction next week.
He said party President Sonia Gandhi was surrounded by a coterie and they dictate her decisions.
His son and former state unit chief K. Muralidharan also refused to stop his tirade against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
The reactions from the father-son duo came after state unit General Secretary Kodikunnil Suresh delivered the Congress leadership’s letter to Muralidharan at his residence.
