Navtej Sarna, Indian Ambassador to the United States made a spectacular announcement at a dinner hosted by an Indian American organisation, “I would like to announce an initiative today. We would institute from the first week of January next year an open house in the Indian Embassy. The Open House would be held every fortnight wherein people with their grievances related to passports, visas and OCI cards can simply walk in and the senior embassy officials would address them.” The reception was organised to welcome the new Indian ambassador Navtej Sarna and to bid farewell to Taranjit, Deputy Chief of Mission, who has been appointed as the new Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.
It is not known whether this announcement has been made under the directive of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) or is it Ambassador Sarna’s own initiative. Either way, it is bound to bring a cheer to the Indian diaspora in America. And hope among Indians residing in other countries that the effort will be replicated by their consulates in their home nations.
"We would put out on the website once a fortnight, a designated day and a time where somebody who may have put in his papers and is not getting a response; somebody who actually have a particular problem which he wants to come and discuss with somebody at the Embassy; somebody who is facing a problem in communication; somebody who does not have a paper for OCI, but still wants to have it; they would be able to come and we will have the our senior officers and the nodal officers will meet them and attend to their problem,” he further added.
"We will also institute a similar arrangement in all our consulates in the United States," the Indian Ambassador said.
The reception was organised to welcome the new ambassador of US Navtej Sarna and to bid farewell to Taranjit, Deputy Chief of Mission, who has been appointed as the new Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.
The Open House will be organised in Indian Embassy in Washington along with the five consulates located in New York, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco.