By IANS
London : An angry crowd stormed the Indian consulate in Birmingham after a row erupted over reduction in the number of visas being issued.
Around 200 people, many of them British Indians, stormed the consulate office Monday, furious at the consulate’s decision to drastically cut down the number of visas it would issue.
“It’s disgusting, we’re being treated like animals. They say they published information about this on their website but I looked at the London website and there was nothing about it there,” said Mary Thomas, an angry visa seeker.
Roy Dhillon, 64, from Rothes in Scotland, drove 510 miles to come to the consulate, only to be turned away.
“I’ve driven through the night to be here. I have to be in India on Friday for a wedding but they’re telling me that I have to go back to Scotland and drive back tomorrow to come for another visa,” he said.
Until Monday the consulate would see up to 200 people a day and could issue as many as 700 visas in a day, the online edition of Birmingham Mail reported.
But from Monday this number was reduced to 50 and people queuing said they had been given little or no notice of this.
Also, the consulate has recently outsourced the job of issuing visas to other private agencies as well.
The consulate has named 12 travel agents and charities which will issue visas but people queuing said they had been charged as much as 38 pounds on top of the usual 30 pounds for the service.
Consul General Narayan Sharma said he had contacted all the organisations and recommended that a fee between 7-10 pounds be charged.