District revenue officers (DRO) in each Punjab district have been designated as fast-track courts for settlement of NRI cases, essentially those relating to pending revenue matters. All such pending cases will be transferred to these designated fast-track courts within the next one month, said sources.

Presently, there are just four districts in Punjab where DROs have been designated as fast-track courts. A meeting to discuss various NRI issues, chaired by Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh was held last week.

Another NRI issue that the state government attempted to address during the meeting was of passport verification. An official said hundreds of NRIs apply for passport verification back home in Punjab for one or the other reason on losing passports at their place of stay.

Interestingly, the figures presented at the meeting suggested a steep fall in the number of pending cases of passport verification by the police. The official said, “From 3,000 such pending cases, the number has been brought down to less than 300. The Chief Secretary directed to expedite the remaining cases as well,” he said.

Hundreds of non-resident Indians (NRIs), who have been labeled proclaimed offenders (PO) in various revenue cases pending litigation, may also be let off the hook following a preliminary report suggesting favourable grounds for settlement of these cases.

Out of the total 1,433 PO cases involving NRIs in revenue litigations stuck at various levels in the government hierarchy, the report has accessed nearly 276 such cases for settlement. This information was put forth during the meeting.

The Punjab Police have also uploaded the exact status of all pending NRI cases on its website so that NRIs could record precise information in their case and decide the next course of action, he added.

The government is also firming up its plans to set up a facilitation centre exclusively for NRIs at Rajasansi International Airport at Amritsar. Premises for the round-the-clock facilitation centre have already been handed out to the Airport Authority of India (AAI). The functioning here is likely to be outsourced.

On the issue of setting up special NRI police stations, officials present in the meeting informed R I Singh that the Punjab Police have put up a demand for Rs 64 lakh for setting up a permanent building for these police stations. Presently, there are just six such police stations for NRIs functioning in Punjab.