NRIs directly or indirectly made Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal realise in their speeches that the promises made to them earlier were not fulfilled.

NRIs also expressed dissatisfaction over the working of the Punjab NRI Sabha-- whose chief patron is the CM-- and appealed to Badal to make it accountable. The diaspora also cited problems related to their properties here. On this, Badal promised to form an NRI Advisory Board to deal with the problems and set up an office in Amritsar to listen to their grievances at the international airport itself.

However, the CM could not define the task of the board, but promised that the DGP and the Chief Secretary would get all the details of pending cases of NRIs within a month and solve them expeditiously.

Also, an office of the NRI Department would be opened in Jalandhar, he said.

Meanwhile, Badal asked NRIs to open schools and a university in the state and offered 50 per cent investment, so that their children could be taught about the rich culture of Punjab.

UK MP Varinder Sharma welcomed the promises made by the CM, but added that there were some doubts due to their earlier experience. He suggested that the state government should bring up some new schemes to attract foreign investments, so that even the not-so-rich Punjabi NRIs could also invest here.

Nina Gill, MP of European Parliament, said Punjab needs to concentrate on education to compete at the international level. Gurbax Singh Malhi, another prominent NRI and five-time MP in Canada, highlighted matrimonial disputes, land grab cases and harassment at Amritsar airport.