NEW DELHI:
Ministry of home affairs
on Wednesday announced that the government has started granting citizenship under the
CAA
in the states of West Bengal, Haryana, and Uttarakhand. According to the ministry’s statement, the respective State Empowered Committee granted citizenship to the applicants in these three states on Wednesday.
On May 15, the Union Home Secretary handed over the first set of citizenship certificates to the applicants in New Delhi, following the notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, which were granted by the Empowered Committee, Delhi.
Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024, notified by the MHA on March 11, have paved the way for the operationalization of the CAA, which was passed by Parliament in 2019.
As per the regulations, migrants from six minority communities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh can seek Indian citizenship under the CAA, with retrospective effect. This was made possible following the enactment of law.
Under CAA 2019 amendment, migrants who entered India by December 31, 2014, and had suffered “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution” in their country of origin, were made eligible for citizenship by the new law. These type of migrants will be granted fast track Indian citizenship in six years.
The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for naturalization of these migrants from eleven years to five.
(With inputs from agencies)