80 pc of visa seekers are touts and brokers: Indian HC

UNB, Dhaka

Around 25,000 of the Bangladeshis who entered India with legal visa each year never did return to Bangladesh, Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said Monday, apparently to deflate complaints about hurdles in the visa-issuance process.
The diplomat also made yet another bitter observation that over 80 percent of those who queue up in front of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka for visa are "touts and brokers".
He said that he has taken up this issue with the Bangladesh government and the visa process would be easier if these people (touts and brokers) could be driven away from the queue.
Pinak came up with the comments at a conference titled 'Bangladesh-India Economic Relations' at Sonargaon Hotel where Commerce Minister Faruk Khan was present as the chief guest.
"Around 25,000 Bangladeshi people who entered India legally never returned to Bangladesh. We do not know where they go," he told the function in his latest salvo at a time when contentions were yet to die down over his recent remark about the wisdom of the Bangladeshi experts who speak on India's Tipaimukh-dam project.
Explaining the delays in visa issuance he said that the visa-issuing process is little bit time-consuming here as they have to confirm the security first for their own country, because of a chain of violent incidents in India.
Citing the example of Mumbai incident, the Indian envoy said: "We have to confirm our own security first and for that reason the issuing of visa takes a little bit longer time."