Abu Dhabi: The Indian Embassy has launched a drive to encourage Indian expatriates in the UAE to register their details with the mission as the first step towards facilitating overseas voting of NRIs and to reach out to them in a better way.
At a Press conference held at the mission, officials urged all Indians in the UAE to register with the mission through the web portal www.uaeindians.org, the link which is also provided on the website of the embassy, www.indembassyuae.org.
“We have a number of initiatives coming up including the NRI voting system,” said Neeta Bhushan, deputy chief of mission and the head of chancery. “If we know the numbers, we can reach out to the community in a better way and render any assistance as and when required.”
The Indian government is currently framing the rules and regulations to facilitate NRIs to cast votes from abroad after the Supreme Court recently approved an amendment to the People’s Representation Act.
Bhushan said getting expatriate Indians registered and forming their database were the initial steps that the mission was undertaking to facilitate the NRI voting system, the framework for which is expected to be in place “within a few months”.
“If you are registered here, your registration with the Election Commission in India will be much easier and faster,” she said.
Though the Indian expatriates in the UAE are estimated to be around 2.6 million, only some 40,000 of them have registered their details.
“Being the largest community, we grapple with a lot of issues on a daily basis. So, it will be beneficial for us to know the details of all Indians to provide all our assistance and communicate various information to the community faster.”
Incentive
The mission is planning to offer some incentives to get the Indians to register online. “We are going to provide one air ticket monthly by lottery for the next 10-12 months … we are still finalising it,” said Bhushan. Air India Express and Jet Airways have proposed to offer the tickets.
Apart from taking stock of the number of Indians in each emirate, she said there is a plan to link the database with consular services. Registration reference number is said to help the mission to access details of individuals involved in cases such as accidents, deaths, passport loss.
Awareness campaigns in labour accommodations, through companies, outsourced agencies of consular services and media advertisement campaign will also be part of the registration drive.
Bhushan said the mission has already launched a newsletter which will be sent to all the registered Indians via email. The newsletter will focus on details related to India-UAE relations, visits of dignitaries and so on.
Giving an update on the recently launched e-Migrate system for streamlining the recruitment of Indian workers and nurses and end the role of middlemen, Second Secretary Mohd. Shahid Alam said about 250 foreign companies based in the UAE have registered with the mission.
However, only 18 of them have been approved for recruitment after validating their documents. In the case of the nurses, only one hospital has registered for recruiting Indian nurses. Officials urged healthcare establishments and other firms to register with the mission for smoother recruitment processes.
