NRI panel issues notice to MEA

Chandigarh, February 8, 2012
The Punjab NRI Commission has issued notice to the Union External Affairs Ministry, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs and the Punjab government on a complaint filed by expatriate Indian workers regarding non-payment of their salary by Nigerian-based Delta Steel Company for the past 11 months. The NRI Commission has asked them to submit affidavits by March 21 this year.

The bench of the Commission, comprising Chairperson Justice Arvind Kumar (retd), Members VK Bhawra and Jagtar Singh, today issued notice on a complaint filed by Preeti Rajwanshi, who alleged that her father Naveen Kumar Rajvanshi and 117 others had been employed by M/s Global Steel Holding Limited in India and posted to work in Delta Steel Co located in Warry in Nigeria in 2005.

The complaint was annexed with another complaint made by the 117 India expatriate staff of the Delta Steel Company, Nigeria. The complaint had been made to NRI Sabha, Jalandhar, Punjab, that had sent it to the Commissioner, NRI Affairs, Punjab, who in return had forwarded it to the Commission for necessary disposal.

In the complaint, she said there was no provision of medical facilities for such employees and not possible for them to return back to India in absence of payment of their salary and other dues. "They have been kept as bonded labour by the company and there is serious danger to their life and liberty," she alleged.

The Commission ruled that the legal as well as human rights of the employees had been violated. It said it could not remain a mute spectator after receiving a complaint containing such serious allegations. It held that the allegations jeopardised the "Right to Life" enshrined by Article 21 of the Constitution of India, to its citizens.

The Commission also issued notice to Delta Steel Company, Warri, Nigeria, through Ministry of External Affairs and counterpart companies in India of the Delta Steel Company and its chair.