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Consular services at Indian Islamic Centre

The service was inaugurated yesterday by the outgoing Indian Consul General, Dr George Joseph at DIIC premises. Consul R.K. Kapil, Consul M. Hansda, Consul Venugopal and Vice-Consul Bharat Raj, Haji N. Jamaluddin, President of DIIC were among the others present on the occasion.

The new service will benefit the low-income group among the Indian community in general to renew passports and process any other passport-related papers within a definite time-frame. If required the centre will also collect the necessary documents from the workplace of the labourers saving their time and money.

Talking to Khaleej Times Dr Joseph said: "The main purpose of offering the service at the DIIC is to reduce the number of people standing in queues at the consulate counters waiting for their passports and documents to be processed. This was inconvenient to both the employees and to the people as they were wasting a lot of time standing in queues. However, to simplify the job for them, we decided to have the same service offered here. They will submit their documents and it will be further proceeded to the consulate for approval".

Dr Joseph added that the working hours at the centre are more than the consulate where specific hours are dedicated to meet the requirements of the people.

Dr Joseph said "we have received a number of complaints from the Indian community about the slow procedures at the consulate and as our main aim is to serve the community in an efficient manner, we have decided to offer them the same service in different areas."

Mr Jamaluddin said: "Our main aim is to come closer to the Indian people living in the UAE and we endeavour to solve any problem being faced by them," he said urging people to contact the centre when facing any problems.

The DIIC has already acquired a reputation for implementing welfare programmes for the poor including free medical camps that are conducted at regular intervals.

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