THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An unholy nexus exists allegedly between certain Malayali officials of the UAE Consulate in the state capital and a private agency at Manacaud here for submitting Police Clearance Certificates (PCC) to the consulate for issuing work visa for the UAE-bound job aspirants. It had emerged the consulate staffers were asking the applicants who obtained the PCC to submit it through ‘Fourth Force Surveillance Pvt Ltd’, a private agency based at Manacaud.
This was imposing an additional financial burden on the candidates, it was alleged. Sources said the private agency was collecting Rs 6,400 per person as service charge. According to them, a section of the consulate staffers could be behind the move, prompting the candidates to come through a private agency channel. “ The involvement of ‘influential’ persons cannot be ruled out. They may ‘pressure’ the agency so as to pocket commission. However, it is also alleged some candidates had approached the consulate directly without realising the PCC application forms could be downloaded from the police website,” the sources said.
The consulate also has some listed agencies for submitting the visa-related documents, with the names of these companies listed on the consulate’s official website. Curiously, the name of the company to which the PCC holders were referred to by the consulate staffers is conspicuously absent from the list. This has led to a suspicion some of these officers had a nexus with the private agencies to pocket commission.
City Police Commissioner(CP)P Prakash told Express the police have nothing to do with this as it is the consulate’s duty to look into the issue.
“We have nothing to do with this and have no role in it. We are bound to issue the certificate after verification. So it is the consulate which needs to inquire into this,” Prakash said. The UAE consulate has already clarified they do not charge a fresh fee for the PCC and the PCC is issued as per the existing procedure. The UAE had made conduct certificate issued by the local police mandatory for job aspirants from February 4.
The Kerala Police were the first in the country to respond and DGP Loknath Behera issued a directive to all district police chiefs in this regard. But after the PCC was made mandatory, confusion prevails among applicants regarding the procedure. Last week, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to freeze the rule for six months to make the process more convenient to the candidates.
Clearance fee for UAE job seekers slashed
T’Puram: Police have reduced the application fees and simplified procedures for issuing police clearance certificate to UAE job seekers. The fees was slashed from Rs 1000 to Rs 500. As per the new decision, application is to be submitted in the local police station. The certificate will be issued by the SHO. Supporting documents to be produced are ration card to prove address and date of birth, voter ID card, SSLC book, document in proof for job offer, copy of passport and two passport size photos. Application fees can be paid in cash at the station. SHO should issue the certificate in three days. The PCC application form can be downloaded from www.keralapolice.org. A verification will follow. Applicants with a clean record will be issued the certificate promptly. In case of a criminal record, the matter will be referred to the special branch [ intelligence wing of the state police] and respective police stations, which must issue an NOC first.