Over 4,500 persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan (ABP) were granted Indian Citizenship in the four years till 2022, as per data from the Union home ministry. 

The highest number of citizenships granted to those belonging to persecuted minorities were in 2022, said officials. The recently-passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, rules will help speed up pending cases of citizenship through registration and naturalisation for displaced people from ABP, they added.

The number of citizenships granted to minority communities were less due to the centralised process following which the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), first in 2016, and then in 2021-22, granted powers to district magistrates and collectors to grant citizenships to minorities belonging to the six communities. 

A total of collectors of 31 districts and home secretaries of nine states have been delegated powers by the central government to grant citizenship with respect to specified communities, according to the home ministry.

Among them are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Until now, the collectors, district, and home secretaries of the states and Union territories were required to maintain a register of those who were granted citizenship and furnish a copy to the Central government within seven days of registration or naturalisation of citizenship.

Under the new CAA rules, the cases of citizenship for ABP categories will be referred online to an empowered committee in states and Union territories (UTs) and those who came before December 31, 2014, would be eligible to apply. 

The empowered committee will be headed by the director (census operations), Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), jurisdictional foreigner's regional registration officer (FRRO), State Informatics Officer and the postmaster general.

After four years, the government had, earlier this week, notified the CAA rules using an online portal. The rules permit any valid or expired foreign passport, driving licence, school certificates, identity documents, land or tenancy records or valid stay documents from ABP. 

These could be beyond their validity dates. Those who migrated to India or married an Indian national or those whose parents lived in India before partition are also covered under CAA.

Source: The Economic Times 

BDST: 1034 HRS, MAR 15, 2024
MN