The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has announced the initiation of the citizenship granting process under the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in West Bengal, Haryana, and Uttarakhand. The empowered committees in these states have begun issuing citizenship certificates to eligible individuals, marking a significant step in the implementation of the CAA.
This development coincides with the upcoming seventh phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for June 1 in various constituencies across West Bengal. The process of handing over citizenship certificates began on May 15 in Delhi, where approximately 300 citizenships were granted on the inaugural day, following the notification of Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, on March 11.
The CAA aims to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities including Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
According to the MHA statement released on Wednesday, the Empowered Committee in West Bengal, as well as those in Haryana and Uttarakhand, have started granting citizenship to the first batch of applicants in their respective states under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.
Although the CAA was passed in December 2019, the formulation of underlying rules was delayed, leading to nationwide protests that subsided due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent legal challenges pending in the Supreme Court.
The CAA, a manifesto promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 elections, has faced criticism from opposition parties who view it as linked to electoral politics. Leaders like West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin have voiced opposition to the CAA, citing concerns over its impact on constitutional rights.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on May 14, asserted that Mamata Banerjee would not be able to obstruct the implementation of the CAA.
The CAA rules specify that refugees from six minority communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan seeking citizenship through registration or naturalization must submit various documents including affidavits, declarations, and attestations from Indian citizens validating their character and language proficiency as per the Constitution’s eighth schedule.
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