Information on foreigners to be shared on real-time basis: PC

New Delhi, Dec 1 (PTI) Stung by the controversy over
issuance of visa to terror suspect Tahawwur Rana, the Indian
government has decided to link all offices dealing with
providing travel documents to foreigners to ensure sharing of
information on a real-time basis.

Under this proposal, the offices of Foreigners' Division,
Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (FRRO), India's
Ministry of External Affairs and all its Missions abroad will
be interlinked, Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said
Tuesday.
"This project is to ensure that (real-time) kind of
connectivity takes place so that information is shared
instantly on a real-time basis and decisions can therefore be
taken on a real-time basis," he said.
Chidambaram said the FRROs, FROs and the foreigners'
division are all now on a "stand-alone" basis with no
real-time information sharing when a visa is issued.
"As it was issued by Counsel General in Chicago, there
was no real-time information. So what we need is real-time
sharing of information among all the offices which are dealing
with foreigners," he said.
The move comes in the wake of the reports that the Indian
Consulate in Chicago had issued visa to Rana, a
Pakistani-Canadian, without referring his case to the Ministry
of Home Affairs.