MEA to conduct `outreach conference' with Telangana

Hyderabad: In a first-of-its-kind exercise, the Ministry of External Affairs is going to organise an `outreach conference' with Telangana government on consular, passport and diaspora issues here on May 13. Minister of State for External Affairs General V K Singh (retd) would lead a delegation of senior officials from the ministry at the conference, regional passport officer E Vishnu Vardhan Reddy told reporters today. "The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has launched a new outreach programme, focusing on state governments, called Videsh Sampark series.

The first conference under this is being held in collaboration with the Government of Telangana," he said. The objective is to generate awareness and inform about various flagship programmes launched by the ministry in the last three years, he said. These programmes are aimed at liberalising the passport services, addressing grievances in a prompt and efficient manner and ensuring welfare and protection of Indian community abroad, Reddy said. "We wanted to be outcome-oriented, identify areas where both the Centre and the state governments can collaborate and come up with joint effort.

In this spirit, we have been working with them over the last two months. Around 10 deliverables have been identified. These deliverables will be announced on May 13," he said. It is for the first time that a secretary-level officer, joint secretaries and other officials, led by the minister, are coming to a state (for such conference) and engaging with an equally large delegation of state ministers and senior bureaucrats, he added.