More than two months after it granted dual citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin in eight countries, the government is planning to bestow the facility on Non-Residents Indians in the Middle East.

"Officials in the Union home ministry are discussing the pros and cons of giving dual citizenship to PIOs in the Gulf. My ministry will also recommend extending the facility..." Minister of State for Law P C Thomas told rediff.com on Monday.

According to the minister, there was a 'lot of confusion' as to whether the government should extend this facility to Middle East.

"Basically, Indians who go to work in the Gulf countries generally come back to settle down in India, unlike the Indians who migrate to the United States and European countries," Thomas said.

However, since there are many Indians who have decided to settle down in the Gulf, it is imperative that the government extend the facility to them, he added.

In may the government decided to amend the 48-year-old Citizenship Act to introduce citizenship for PIOs.

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani had then moved the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2003 in the Rajya Sabha. But the legislation will be enacted only after it is passed in both Houses in the monsoon session of Parliament, which reconvenes on Monday.

It will help launch the scheme of national identity cards.

The amended act will not be immediately applicable to PIOs in all countries since the government has decided that dual citizenship will be granted to Indians in those countries that have a corresponding provision.

Currently, such a provision exists only in the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Finland and the Netherlands.

After the government decided to grant dual citizenship to PIOs in these countries, a number of Gulf-based organisations had protested.

The Dubai-based chapter of the Overseas Indians Economic Forum had said granting dual citizenship would jeopardise India's security interests. Some NRI organisations had demanded that the government had discriminated against Gulf-based NRIs by granting the facility to only those in Western countries.

According to Dubai-based Indian Welfare Association president K P Krishnakumar, successive governments have always 'neglected the contributions made by the NRIs working across various Persian Gulf countries'.

"We are eager to know what was the criteria based on which the government decided to grant dual citizenship to a select few countries. I think the government and the Committee on the Indian Diaspora have completely failed to understand the sentiments of the millions of Indians in Gulf countries," Krishnakumar told rediff.com

According to government figures, there are more than 3.5 million Indians working in the Gulf region and more than 70 per cent of them make remittance to India.