For decades, Punjabis living abroad have remained among Punjab’s most important economic, social and emotional stakeholders. They send money back to their families, build houses, invest in land and businesses, support relatives, finance education and healthcare, and return to Punjab every year with the expectation that their ancestral homes and properties will be safe and that the state machinery will protect their rights. Yet, after nearly four and a half years of the Aam Aadmi Party government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, a growing section of the Punjabi diaspora is asking a simple but uncomfortable question: what has actually changed?
The government has organised NRI Milnis, online meetings and grievance camps. Ministers have repeatedly assured overseas Punjabis that their complaints would be resolved quickly and fairly. But the sheer volume of complaints reaching the NRI Affairs Department raises a much bigger question: why are thousands of Punjabis abroad still struggling with property disputes, illegal occupation, fraud, intimidation, matrimonial disputes and criminal cases? According to figures released by the Punjab NRI Affairs Department, 26,828 complaints were received between January 2022 and May 2026. Of these, the government says 25,870 were disposed of, while 1,187 FIRs were registered and 1,451 accused were arrested. The government has also acknowledged that major complaints involve property disputes, illegal occupation of land, documentary irregularities and matrimonial matters.
These numbers should not simply be presented as evidence of government success. They should also trigger an examination of why so many cases arose in the first place and how many complainants actually received final justice rather than merely having their complaints marked as “disposed of.” For an NRI whose ancestral property has been illegally occupied, an administrative hearing or a police complaint is not the end of the problem. The real question is whether the property was returned, whether forged documents were cancelled, whether the accused were prosecuted and whether the victim was finally able to live without fear.
When the Mann government came to power in 2022, the NRI community was given hope that its problems would receive priority attention. The government organised “NRI Punjabian Naal Milni” meetings across Punjab, with the stated objective of resolving grievances of Punjabis living abroad. The concept was politically attractive and administratively necessary. But nearly four years later, the question is no longer whether the government has listened to NRIs. The question is whether it has solved the structural problems that force NRIs to repeatedly approach government offices.
If NRI Milnis are held year after year and thousands of new complaints continue to arrive, then the government must explain why the system has not been fundamentally repaired. A grievance meeting cannot become a substitute for institutional reform. NRIs do not need another stage, another microphone or another assurance. They need a functioning system that delivers justice.
Property remains at the heart of the NRI problem. The Punjab government itself acknowledges that property disputes and illegal occupation of land constitute a major portion of NRI complaints. This is particularly serious because NRI-owned properties can become easy targets. The owner may live thousands of miles away. The land may remain vacant for years. Relatives, caretakers, neighbours or local intermediaries may gradually assume control. Documents can be manipulated, possession can become disputed and civil litigation can continue for years.
For someone living in California, Canada, Britain, Australia or Europe, travelling repeatedly to Punjab simply to attend hearings, visit police stations, meet revenue officials and fight encroachment cases is enormously expensive and emotionally exhausting. The fundamental question for the Punjab government is therefore simple: why should an NRI have to spend years fighting to retain ownership of property that legally belongs to him or her?
The problem becomes even more serious when property disputes intersect with serious crime. Punjab has witnessed cases in which NRI property disputes have allegedly become connected to murder and contract killing. In July 2023, Canada-returned NRI Baninderdeep Singh was hacked to death near Lalton Kalan in Ludhiana. Police subsequently arrested six people, including a juvenile, and said a property dispute was connected with the conspiracy. In February 2024, Mandeep alias Tirath Singh, an NRI who had returned from Hong Kong, was found murdered at his residence in Badni Khurd village of Moga district. Police said the body was recovered nearly 20 days after the murder. In August 2024, US-returned NRI Sukhchain Singh was shot inside his house in Amritsar. Police arrested five people and said the attack had been orchestrated from the United States.
These individual cases should not be casually converted into a statewide statistical claim. But they demonstrate why the diaspora is concerned about security when returning to Punjab. The problem is not merely about property. It is about whether an overseas Punjabi can return to his own village, enter his own house, visit his own land and conduct his own affairs without becoming vulnerable to threats, extortion, violence or criminal intimidation.
This is where the Punjab government owes the diaspora greater transparency. There does not appear to be a publicly available official consolidated database showing, year by year from March 2022 through July 2026, how many NRIs were murdered, how many were attacked or shot, how many faced extortion, how many reported kidnapping or criminal intimidation, how many women faced rape or sexual violence, how many NRI-owned properties were illegally occupied, how many cases involved forged property documents, how many cases resulted in convictions and how many cases remain pending.
The absence of a comprehensive NRI-specific crime database is itself a problem. The government cannot claim that the diaspora is fully protected while simultaneously failing to publish a transparent annual dashboard showing the nature and outcome of crimes committed against them. If Punjab considers its overseas population an important stakeholder, it should be able to tell that community exactly what happened to its complaints.
The issue of women in the diaspora requires particular attention. NRI-related matrimonial disputes have long been a major problem in Punjab, including allegations involving abandonment, dowry, fraud, domestic violence and exploitation. The Punjab government has itself identified matrimonial cases as one of the major categories of complaints received from NRIs. But the state should go further. The public deserves to know how many NRI-linked complaints involved allegations of rape or sexual assault, how many resulted in FIRs, how many resulted in arrests and what happened to those cases in court.
It would be irresponsible to manufacture a rape figure without official evidence. But it would be equally irresponsible for the government not to publish such information when the diaspora is demanding accountability. Serious crimes against women should not disappear inside broad categories of “matrimonial disputes.”
The government’s latest complaint figures also deserve closer examination. In May 2026, the government reported that the NRI Department had received 590 applications between January and April, of which 430 had been resolved and 160 remained under process. During May alone, another 56 complaints were received. These complaints included property disputes, matrimonial matters, fraud, illegal occupation, intimidation and harassment.
Again, the government deserves credit for creating channels through which people can complain. But the bigger question remains: why are these problems continuing at such a scale after four years of NRI Milnis? If nearly 27,000 complaints have reached the department since 2022, Punjab does not merely have a grievance problem. It has a governance problem.
The Punjabi diaspora is not looking for ceremonies. It is looking for results. NRIs need dedicated police officers who can act without political pressure. They need revenue officials who can prevent illegal mutations and fraudulent transfers. They need courts and administrative mechanisms capable of dealing with property cases without forcing overseas owners into endless litigation. They need protection from extortion and gangster networks. They need accountability when officials refuse to register complaints. And they need a mechanism through which an NRI can monitor the progress of a case without repeatedly travelling thousands of miles to Punjab.
Punjab also cannot treat its diaspora simply as an ATM. The state routinely celebrates its diaspora when discussing foreign investment, remittances, development projects, religious tourism and village development projects. But the relationship cannot be one-way. NRIs cannot be welcomed when the government wants investment and ignored when they demand protection of their homes, land, businesses and families.
The diaspora is not simply a source of foreign currency. It is an integral part of Punjab. The money sent by overseas Punjabis has helped sustain thousands of families and villages. Their contributions have funded schools, hospitals, religious institutions, community centres, sports facilities and charitable projects. The minimum expectation in return is a government system that protects their legitimate interests.
If the Punjab government genuinely believes its NRI policy is successful, it should publish a comprehensive Punjab NRI Justice and Security Report covering the entire AAP period. The report should contain district-wise and year-wise data on NRI murders, assaults and shootings, extortion and threats, kidnapping cases, rape and sexual-assault complaints, matrimonial fraud and abandonment, illegal occupation of NRI land and houses, property fraud and forged documents, FIRs registered, arrests made, chargesheets filed, cases pending in courts, convictions and acquittals, properties restored to NRI owners and officials disciplined for negligence or corruption.
Without this information, political claims about NRI welfare remain difficult to independently evaluate. The government may point to the number of complaints disposed of, but the diaspora has every right to ask what “disposed of” actually means. Was the land restored? Was the house vacated? Was the accused convicted? Was the forged document cancelled? Was compensation provided? Was the victim protected from retaliation? These are the measurements that matter.
The Mann government’s NRI Milnis created visibility. The online meetings created accessibility. The NRI Affairs Department has collected thousands of complaints. But the ultimate test of governance is not how many meetings are held or how many complaints are marked as disposed of. The test is whether an NRI can return to Punjab without fear, whether an elderly overseas Punjabi can protect ancestral property without hiring multiple lawyers, whether an NRI woman can obtain justice without travelling repeatedly between Punjab and her country of residence, whether criminals can occupy NRI land without political or bureaucratic protection and whether the police respond to an NRI before a crime becomes a tragedy.
After four and a half years, the Punjabi diaspora deserves more than assurances. It deserves a transparent account of every murder, attack, threat, property seizure, illegal occupation, fraud and serious criminal complaint involving overseas Punjabis. It deserves to know how many cases were actually solved and how many remain unresolved.
The question facing the Mann government in the final phase of its first term is therefore not whether it has held enough NRI Milnis. It is whether those Milnis produced lasting institutional change.
The diaspora is watching.
Punjab’s overseas community has contributed enormously to the state’s economy, families, villages and institutions. It has invested its money, emotions and hopes in Punjab. It is now asking for something much more basic in return: security, dignity, equality before the law and justice.The NRI Milni cannot be the destination. It must be the beginning of justice.
Disclaimer: This article and accompanying images are for informational and illustrative purposes only. Some visuals may be AI-generated or digitally enhanced and may not depict actual events or persons.Views expressed are based on publicly available information and analysis.