Make travel between India, Pakistan visa-free for kids: NGO

CHANDIGARH - A city-based NGO Yuvsatta has demanded that travel for children between India and Pakistan should be made visa-free.

The NGO has roped in Chandigarh MP and union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal for their efforts.

“Bansal has talked and wrote a letter to External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Oct 19. He has personally persuaded Krishna to work in the direction of visa-free travel of children between the countries and to initiate dialogue with his counterparts in Pakistan,” Parmod Sharma, secretary of Yuvsatta, told IANS here Wednesday.

“Bansal has assured us that he will also take up this issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coming days. If the European countries can form European Union (EU) after years of battle then why can’t we adopt similar path.”

In the letter, Bansal said: “Visa free travel of children of the two countries would facilitate interaction and would be an important step for promoting goodwill between the younger generations of the two countries.”

Last month, Yuvsatta had organised ‘International Students Peace Festival’ in this union territory in which around 500 students from 10 different countries, including 50 from Pakistan, had participated.

“With the support of like-minded organisations in India and Pakistan, like Confederation of Voluntary Agencies (a group of nearly 800 NGOs), Hyderabad and Institute for Peace and Secular Studies, Lahore, we would spearhead our movement,” said Sharma.

“In January, next year, a delegation of school children from Pakistan will visit India to press this demand of visa-free travel with Indian ministers and concerned officials,” he pointed out.