A day after opening up visa-on-arrival scheme for four more countries, the government on Friday decided to allow foreigners to visit Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland without the need of obtaining a Protected Area Permit as required now.
A Home Ministry statement said the government had decided to exclude the entire area of these three states from the Protected Area regime, notified under the Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order, 1958 for a period of one year from January 1, 2011.
As of now, foreigners require a protected area permit to visit some parts of these states — as also some other areas in Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands — that are considered to be sensitive in nature from the country’s security point of view. Even Indian citizens are required to take Inner Line Permits to visit some of these areas.
The new rules would only require foreigners to register themselves at the local Foreigners Registration Officer (FRO) of the district they visit within 24 hours of their arrival. Citizens of some specified countries would, however, continue to require an approval from the Home Ministry to visit these states. The ministry statement did not say which these countries were.
The Friday’s directive from the Home Ministry is the latest in a series of
steps the government has been taking to ease the restrictions on foreign visitors.
At the start of this year, the government had taken the big step of offering tourist visa-on-arrival to citizens of five countries, namely Japan, Finland, Singapore, New Zealand and Luxembourg. Following an enthusiastic response to this scheme, the government on Thursday extended this facility to four more countries — Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The north-eastern states have been demanding a relaxation of the Protected Area/Restricted Area regimes for a long time now in order to give a boost to tourism in these areas and also to support developmental activities.
In its statement on Friday, the Home Ministry said Indian missions abroad had also been authorised to issue ‘missionary visas’ to foreign missionaries visiting these three states as per the prevailing guidelines of the government.
News via Express news service
Posted: Sat Jan 01 2011, 03:08 hrs,New Delhi:
Tags : visa-on-arrival scheme, allow foreigners to visit Manipur, Protected Area Permit
