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Indian e-Visa scam: Unofficial websites trying to facilitate issuance of fake entry permit

The government coordinated with Google to ensure that official link appears prominently in the search engine

Published: Tue 25 Jul 2023, 8:34 PM

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  • ANI

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The Indian government has taken several steps to minimise the appearance of unauthorised and unrecognised private websites that claim to facilitate the issuance of e-Visas, Minister of State Nityanand Rai informed the Parliament on Tuesday.

MoS Rai also said that it has come to the government's notice that some unauthorised and unrecognised private websites try to intermediate and facilitate the issuance of India e-Visa.

He informed the lower house of the Parliament that these unauthorised private websites also appear through search engines, because of which the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has coordinated with Google search engine to ensure that Indian Visa official link appears prominently in the search engine.

Addressing the Lok Sabha, MoS Rai said, "With respect to e-Visas, from time to time it has come to the notice of the Government that some unauthorised and unrecognised private websites try to intermediate and facilitate the issuance of India e-Visa. Some of them also appear similar to the official Indian Visa website (indianvisaonline.gov.in) and also appear through search engines".

"The government of India has taken several steps to minimize such a practice. In this regard, National Informatics Centre (NIC) has coordinated with the Google search engine to ensure that Indian Visa official link appears prominently in the search engine," he added.

The Minister of State further said that the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) refers from time to time, the list of such unauthorized websites to CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) to disable them from accessing the Indian official visa portal.

"Visa service providers are engaged by Indian Missions under the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). With respect to such service providers, it is specifically mentioned in the contract/Request for proposals (RFPs) for tenders that Outsourced Service Providers (OSPs) will properly scrutinize the application forms submitted before forwarding the same to Indian Missions/Posts abroad. To avoid any lapses on their part, a checklist is also maintained. Regular inspections/surprise visits are also carried out," Nityanand Rai further said.

Meanwhile, the Monsoon session of Parliament commenced on July 20 and will go on till August 11. However, both Houses have been seeing repeated adjournments over the Manipur issue, since the beginning of the Monsoon Session on July 20.

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