Union Dwelling Secretary Shri Ajay Kumar Bhalla handed over the citizenship certificates.
New Delhi:
The primary set of citizenship certificates to 14 folks was issued below the Citizenship (Modification) Act or CAA right now, practically two months after the Centre notified it, initiating the method of granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Underneath the CAA, the qualification interval of citizenship utility has been lowered from 11 to five years for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who got here to India earlier than December 31, 2014.
Union Dwelling Secretary Shri Ajay Kumar Bhalla handed over the citizenship certificates to the candidates in Delhi and highlighted salient options of the CAA. Secretary Posts, Director (IB), Registrar Basic of India and senior officers had been additionally current through the interactive session.
The CAA was enacted in December 2019 to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. These embrace Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians. The Act bought the president’s assent however the guidelines below which the Indian citizenship was granted had been issued solely on March 11 this yr after over 4 years delay. The ruling BJP, which dedicated to enacting the Citizenship Modification Invoice in its 2019 manifesto, stated the implementation was delayed as a result of pandemic.
The notification drew sharp criticism from the opposition, which phrases the transfer as discriminatory and motivated by the Lok Sabha elections. The Centre, nonetheless, has maintained that the CAA “doesn’t forestall any persecuted Muslim for practising their model of Islam, from making use of for Indian citizenship below the present legal guidelines”.
A number of elements of the nation witnessed protests towards the choice to implement CAA as some concern the regulation may very well be used to declare them unlawful immigrants and take away their Indian citizenship.
The federal government denies this and says the regulation is required to assist minorities going through persecution in Muslim-majority nations as per the “evergreen beneficiant tradition of India to get Indian citizenship for his or her completely satisfied and affluent future”.
“No Indian citizen can be requested to provide any doc to show citizenship”, the Ministry of Dwelling Affairs headed by Amit Shah had stated, including the Citizenship Act does not take care of the deportation of unlawful immigrants.