Chandigarh, July 17 (IANS) Help is now at hand for the wives abandoned by Punjabi non-residents Indians. The central government is extending financial aid to them so that they can fight their legal battles for their rights, an official said Thursday. “The prime objective of the scheme is to extend financial support to the deserted wives so that they could fight a legal battle for their rights,” said a spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs Thursday.

“The aid will be provided to them through various registered women organisations, associations of non-resident Indians and NGOs,” he said.

The NRI wives who were deserted within the five years of their marriage and those who have initiated legal divorce proceedings against their husbands would be given initial amount of $1,000 for the expenses incurred on legal formalities.

Legal assistance to get a maintenance allowance would also be provided to those who were being tortured and were deserted by NRI husbands even after 10 years of marriage and had been given ex-party divorce, provided the marriage was solemnised in India, he said.

He said that the application forwarded by the NRI bride must accompany relevant documents like the date of marriage, place, documents pertaining to the registration of marriage in India, date of actual desertion, date of initiating divorce proceedings, passport details, date of ex-party divorce and annual income from all the sources along with the details of financial aid being given by any other NGO.