591 held for duping people on pretext of sending abroad in Haryana

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Friday told the assembly that 591 people have been arrested in the state on charges of sending people abroad by dubious means.

He said to facilitate final year students of all colleges to study abroad, the government is providing free passports to them and they are being made aware regarding employment opportunities in foreign countries.

"This scheme of providing free passports has been implemented by the Department of Technical Education and Higher Education from 2020-21," Vij, who also holds the Technical Education portfolio, said during the question-answer session on the first day of the winter session.

"Whenever cases of sending people abroad through illegal means are reported, immediate action is taken. An SIT (Special Investigating Team) has been constituted that is led by Bharti Arora to tighten the noose around those involved in 'kabootarbaazi' cases."

The 'kabootarbaazi' means 'flying pigeons' -- a reference to numerous youths trying to use illegal means to settle abroad.

Taking stern action against such people, he said 591 people have been arrested and 485 first information reports (FIRs) registered. A sum of Rs 81,38,800 recovered from them.

As far as the issue of sending children abroad for higher education under the supervision of the government, he said no such matter is under consideration.

"At present, there is no proposal under consideration in the Technical Education Department to set up any government agency to send the students of Haryana for studying abroad or on a work visa," Vij added.