Chiranjeevi for visa-on-arrival facility for 16 countries

Chiranjeevi met Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Friday and submitted a proposal in this regard. The new countries proposed for this facility are Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Sweden and Norway in Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in the Commonwealth of Independent States region, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The new airports, which have been suggested to extend this facility are Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Goa, Gaya and Thiruvananthapuram. The government currently gives visa-on-arrival to citizens of 11 countries. Singapore, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Japan and Finland were the first batch of countries whose citizens were made eligible for this facility on January 1, 2010. The next year, this facility was extended to nationals of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar as well.

Currently, on arrival visas are granted only at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

The scheme has been a huge success and contributed to increase in the number of tourists from these countries. The minister argued that the countries named in his proposal offer big tourist markets for India and that including them in the visa-on-arrival scheme can give a big boost to India’s tourism industry, a government statement said.

Two minor girls ‘gangraped’, killed

Two minor sisters were allegedly gangraped and killed in Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district, the police said on Friday. Bodies

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