Goa sets up emergency fund for its NRIs
By IANSThursday, January 20, 2011
PANAJI - The Goa government Thursday approved a special contingency fund for non-resident Indians (NRIs) of Goan origin facing financial hardships abroad.
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat told reporters after a meeting Thursday evening that the state cabinet had approved the policy after it was moved by the plight of a family which was left in distress in a foreign country following the death of its sole breadwinner.
“He was the sole bread earner of the family when he went abroad and they had no money to bring his body back once he died suddenly. The state government intervened and got the body back to the relatives in Goa with the help of the Indian embassy there,” Kamat said, without naming the victim or the country involved.
Under the innovative NRI emergency repatriation fund, families in distress with their kin abroad would be entitled to Rs.5 lakh assistance to cover medical or funeral expenses with the help of Indias missions abroad, Kamat said.
The fund will be sanctioned by the office of the Commissioner of Non Resident Goans, which was set up to look after the interests of the Goan diaspora spread across the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.
Goa has a sizeable population of non-resident Goans spread across the world, with a sizeable chunk of workforce based in Middle East countries.
