Against the backdrop of terror suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana putting out newspaper advertisements to recruit cadres, the government is planning to plug loopholes in immigration job ads in the media.

After thoroughly examining the issue, the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry is now exploring ways to ensure that such advertisements cannot be put out in future.

"We are exploring various options. We are also looking at bringing out a new legislation to keep an eye on emigration job advertisements for all the countries," Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said.

According to current practice, the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) has to monitor job advertisements for 18 countries which come under the Emigration Check Required (ECR) clause. Rana, a Canadian of Pakistani origin, had put out an advertisement in English dailies asking youths willing to immigrate to US and Canada to appear for interview at a five-star hotel in Kochi last year.

Later, he visited Kochi and stayed in a five-star hotel. FBI had arrested Rana and US citizen David Headley for plotting terror attacks in India at the LeT's behest. Ravi said the advertisement put out by Rana was not for ECR countries and that is why it did not come under the monitoring mechanism.

"We examined the entire issue and found out that it was out of the purview of monitoring mechanism," Ravi said. Officials said norms could be incorporated so as to enable the PoE to keep an eye on job advertisements for

Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) countries as well. The minister said the local police will also have to keep an eye on such job advertisements that appear in the media.

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