GUWAHATI, Nov 1 - Though the Government of India has been relaxing long term visa rules for certain categories of foreign nationals from time to time, no one applied for such visa in Assam so far.
Official sources said that the Government has been changing the long term visa rules from time to time and in most such cases, the norms have been relaxed for minority communities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Due to the Government�s action of relaxing the visa norms, the minorities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan are enjoying different kinds of facilities in India even before the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act came into effect.
On August 19, 2016, the Government issued a notification through which various facilities have been offered to the minority communities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who are staying in India on long term visa.
The facilities offered to such persons include � permission to take up self-employment or for doing business, allowing free movement within the State or Union Territories (excluding Protected/ Restricted/ Cantonment areas) and permitting short term visit for a period of maximum 15 days to another State/ UT after informing the FRRO/ FRO concerned, permission for transfer of LTV papers from one State/UT to another State/ UT, reduction of penalty on non-extension of short term visa/ LTV on time, permission to apply for LTV at the place of present residence in cases where the applicant has moved to the present place of residence without prior permission, opening of bank accounts without permission of RBI, purchase of a dwelling unit for self occupation and suitable accommodation for carrying out self employment without permission of RBI, issuance of driving license, issuance of PAN card and issuance of Aadhaar number.
To facilitate stay of those categories of people in India, the penalty for non extension of both short and long term visa has been reduced drastically.
The penalty for non extension of visa for a period of overstay up to 90 days was 30 USD, which is around Rs 2130, but it has been reduced to only Rs 100.
Similarly, the penalty for overstay without extension of visa for a period of 91 days to two years was 130 USD, that is around Rs 9230, but that has been reduced to Rs 200. The penalty for overstay of more than two years without extension of visa was 230 USD, that is around Rs 16,300, but that has been reduced to only Rs 500.
It may be mentioned here that the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, in its report, said, �As per our records, there are 31,313 persons belonging to minority communities (Hindus - 25447, Sikhs - 5807, Christians - 55, Buddhists � 2 and Parsis - 2) who have been given Long Term Visa on the basis of their claim of religious persecution in their respective countries and want Indian Citizenship. Hence, these persons will be immediate beneficiaries of the Act. However, official sources said that no foreign national has so far applied for such long term visa in Assam.
