[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="Kerala leader hails Saudi government for its unique humanitarian gesture" ids="147515,147513,147514,147512"]
By Hassan Cheruppa
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Former Chief Minister of Kerala Oommen Chandy thanked the Saudi government, headed by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, for its great humanitarian gesture toward the labor and residency law violators. In an exclusive interview with Saudi Gazette, Chandy said that the main purpose of his short visit to the Kingdom was to have a close interaction with the Indian community members and the concerned authorities so as to ensure taking maximum advantage of the latest amnesty announced by the government. Chandy, who discussed the amnesty-related issues with senior Saudi officials and Indian diplomats, expressed satisfaction over the elaborate arrangements made in facilitating the exit procedures for the violators. Accompanied by former Kerala Minister of Culture, Rural Development and Non-Resident Keralite Affairs K.C. Joseph, Chandy addressed dozens of community gatherings in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah during his three-day visit to the Kingdom.
“We were overwhelmed with the highly supportive and compassionate approach from the part of the Saudi authorities so as to enable the labor and residency law violators to benefit from the 90-day grace period. The chief of the Deportation Center (Tarheel) in Riyadh’s Shumaisi and other senior officials warmly welcomed us and asked us to enlighten the community members take maximum advantage of the amnesty period,” he said while noting that a separate deportation center was opened for Indians in Riyadh.
Chandy said Rasheed, a Keralite, was a typical example of the beneficiaries of the unique Saudi humanitarian gesture. “At the Riyadh embassy, I witnessed the officials issuing Emergency Certificate for Rasheed who has been residing in the Kingdom illegally for 34 years and was not in a position to leave the Kingdom. The Saudi authorities gave exemption of a whopping fines amounting to over SR150,000 plus other penalties and gave him final exit to leave the Kingdom,” he said.
Reacting to the difficulties for travel being faced by around two million Gulf expatriates from the Malabar region of northern Kerala, Chandy said that he will spare no efforts to restore the position of Kozhikode International Airport as the seventh busiest airport in the country and the second in the state. “At the time when the airport suspended services of wide-bodied flights, which were operating between Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, for the runway repair and re-carpet works in 2015, Kozhikode was the second airport in Kerala. Now it has become third after Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, and its position would further go down to fourth after the opening of the Kannur airport in the near future,” Chandy said, adding that such a prospect should not be allowed.
While expressing unhappiness over the delay in resuming operation of wide-bodied aircraft from Kozhikode even after the completion of the re-carpeting work, Chandy called for resuming direct service to the Kingdom by using maximum number of narrow-body aircraft. He also drew attention to the difficulties being faced for land acquisition for the runway expansion for the smooth operation of wide-bodied aircraft.
Chandy also lambasted the ‘market exploitation’ of aviation companies by hiking fares exorbitantly during the summer vacation and the festival seasons. “The ordinary expatriates, who make up around 90 percent of the total expatriates, are the worst victims of this unreasonable and unaffordable fare hike.”
On his part, K.C. Joseph criticized the Kerala government’s inaction in making arrangements for the return of undocumented Keralites, saying “the government of Pinarayi Vijayan is supposedly quite unaware of the amnesty period announced by the Saudi government.
