THE Union Government on Wednesday started granting citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in West Bengal, Haryana and Uttarakhand. The CAA was enacted in December 2019 for granting Indian nationality to persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. The applicants in West Bengal, Haryana and Uttarakhand were granted citizenship on Wednesday by the respective State Empowered Committee, the Union Home Ministry said in a statement.

 

The first set of citizenship certificates after the notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, granted by the Empowered Committee, Delhi, were handed over to the applicants in New Delhi by the Union Home Secretary on May 15. This second tranche of citizenship certificates were issued on Wednesday, days before the final phase of voting for Lok Sabha polls on June 1. Several constituencies in West Bengal will vote in the final phase on Saturday. The counting of votes will take place on June 4. Even though the CAA was enactment in 2019, the rules to grant citizenship under it was were issued on March 11 this year, after a delay of more than four years.

 

The CAA rules envisage the manner of application form, procedure for processing applications by the District Level Committee (DLC), scrutiny and grant of citizenship by State Level Empowered Committee (SLEC). The processing of applications is completely through the online portal The passing of the CAA in 2019 sparked protests in different parts of the country with agitators terming the law “discriminatory”.