Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 31 (ANI): Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is on a five-day visit to India, on Monday assured that zero-tolerance for violence against Indian students has been adopted in Australia.

Gillard, who is also Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, called on her Indian counterpart Kapil Sibal here.

“We also talked about the concerns that there have been for Indian students visiting our country and are there for the purpose of education. I have advised Sibal that our local police have cracked down. We have zero-tolerance for violence against Indian students in Australia. We want Indian students in our country to be safe and feel welcomed,” Gillard told reporters.

She added that Australian institutes that are not providing quality education to Indian students would be driven out of business.

“We are making sure that every provider of education in Australia to Indian students is a quality provider. We will go through a process of re-registering providers and to those who aren’t providing a quality education to Indian students, we will make sure that they are driven out of business and no longer they are providing education. We want every provider to be a quality provider,” said Gillard.

Gillard said that she is in the country to take its relationship with India to the front rank of their international partnerships.

“Relationship between Australia and India is a very special relationship for us. We want to ensure that we are building on that good relationship today. We are building on a strategic partnership for the future and education collaboration and exchange will be an important part of that strategic partnership,” said Gillard.

Meanwhile, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said that Gillard has assured him that the Indian students who were targeted by mobs a couple of months ago in Australia would be taken care of.

“They have assured us that either they will be accommodated in another educational institution to continue their studies or they shall be compensated for the loss of money that has been caused on account of the fact that education institutions have been closed,” said Sibal.

Several Indian students have been targeted in separate incidents over the past few months that have sparked angry reactions among the Indian community in Australia and in India itself. (ANI)