Bangladeshis stuck in Indian visa complexities
Bangladeshi nationals planning to travel to India for medical, tourism or business purposes have been facing difficulties in obtaining visas for months.
The problem, which the Indian authorities attribute to application overload, is particularly hampering the activities of Bangladeshi businesspeople.
“If you fill in the Indian visa form online, you can complete it. But at the end, you won't get any date for the visa", a businessman, preferring anonymity, has said.
"If you try again and again for a few days, you will find the same result if you don't know that the date option is kept open for a very limited time during a certain period of the day".
The Daily Star verified the claim and found it to be true.
The Bangladesh and Indian business communities as well as common people have expressed their dissatisfaction over the issue and called for making the online visa processing hassle free.
AK Azad, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), has told The Daily Star that the business people were facing difficulties in getting visas.
He said the FBCCI would raise the issue with the Indian High Commission in Dhaka shortly.
Manoj Kumar Mohapatra, first secretary (political and press), Indian High Commission, has told The Daily Star that the authorities are not creating any problem in the online visa system.
“The problem is on the side of demand and supply. We try our best to help people get visas easily”.
Mohapatra said Indian visas were generally given to tourists, patients, and others within 48 hours of depositing visa forms. Everyday 3,000 visas are issued from the high commission, he added.
The official said the authorities could not issue 10,000 visas per day, as the High Commission did not have that capacity, like infrastructure and manpower, right now.
“We have plans to increase the number of visas in the future. But it is also difficult to get space with public facilities like waiting rooms and toilets in Dhaka”.
The High Commission used to issue manually 1,500 visas, while now it issues 3,000 everyday through digital processes, Mohapatra said, claiming it a substantive development and a miraculous task.
The Indian official also claimed that Bangladeshi business people did not know about the facilities that the High Commission offered them.
“We have a separate booth for business persons at the visa deposition and collection centre. Unfortunately, the business people of your country [Bangladesh] do not know about it”.
Asked about his response, the FBCCI president said it was not true that the Indian High Commission provided extra facilities for business persons. “They are regularly complaining about visa complexities”.
Home Minister Shahara Khatun, who visited New Delhi on February 24-25 and met Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and her counterpart P Chidambaram, discussed the visa issue and urged the authorities to make visa processing easy.
Taking it positively, the Indian authorities assured Shahara of resolving the problems. The home minister pointed out the matter in a written statement during the weekly cabinet yesterday.
Recently, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar told The Daily Star in an interview that the visa processing should be made easier so that Bangladeshis could travel to India, which, he thinks, would play a major role in strengthening bilateral relations between the two neighbours.
“What is the problem if the visa system is made easy?” he asked.
Another claim made by Mohapatra is that only 30-40 visas are given from the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi and 300-400 visas from the Deputy High Commission in Kolkata.
Enamul Haque Chowdhury, press minister at the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, has said the authorities issue over 200 visas from New Delhi and some 500 from Kolkata.
“We would like to say that 100 percent Indian nationals, who apply for Bangladeshi visas, are given visas without any complexities.
“There is no example that anyone seeking a Bangladeshi visa has been refused”.
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