Thiruvananthapuram: In a big relief to thousands of the UAE job seekers from Kerala as well as the rest of India, the Gulf nation has put on hold its decision mandating Good Conduct Certificate / Police Clearance Certificate for job visas. The Consulate General of India in Dubai confirmed this on Twitter on Sunday. "It is confirmed that we have received communication from Government of UAE, that good conduct certificate for employment visas is temporarily suspended," said the tweet by its handle 'India in Dubai'.
The official Twitter account of UAE's Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and Official page of Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation had also confirmed this to those who made queries. “Kindly note that the good conduct certificate is postponed from the first of April till further notice," tweeted MOHRE_UAE. DC had highlighted the plight of the candidates in getting the PCC, especially the fee of around Rs 6,000 charged for various attestations of the PCC as well as the involvement of some private agencies.
Some candidates had even alleged that some officials of the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram had been diverting them to a nearby private agency for PCC related attestation services. The UAE consulate had not responded to e-mail queries of DC on the matter. Apart from the hefty fees for attestations of the PCC, Kerala Police also fished in troubled waters by introducing another Rs 1,000 for issuing PCC, which they cut by half following widespread protests.
The police earned about Rs 2 crore on this account over the last two months. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had informed the Assembly in written reply recently that in February alone, 23,410 candidates had applied for PCC at various police stations in the state. The fee from these candidates alone came to around Rs 1.2 crore. The UAE had made Good Conduct Certificate mandatory for job visas from February 4. While many foreign countries, including Kuwait, a GCC member country, has been accepting the PCC issued by the ministry of external affairs through regional passport offices, the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram had taken up the matter with the state police and the police offered to issue PCC through police stations.
It had to be further attested by the state home department and the MoEA before being certified by the consulate. But the PCCs issued by the police stations lacked a uniform pattern, and hence many were even rejected by the consulate. An UAE-based lawyer, Femin Panikkassery, had recently approached the High Court citing that the UAE authorities had rejected PCCs issued by regional passport offices and the HC also sought a clarification from the Centre last week.
