On Wednesday, the Centre initiated the process of issuing citizenship certificates under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, in West Bengal. The first group of applicants from the state received their citizenship from the Empowered Committee today. Today, the Empowered Committees of Haryana and Uttarakhand also granted citizenship to their first set of applicants under the CAA.
The process of granting citizenship certificates under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 has now commenced in the state of West Bengal, where the first set of applications from the state was today granted citizenship by the Empowered Committee, West Bengal: MHA pic.twitter.com/3wF5blQYps
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The government notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules on March 11, 2024. This notification by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) came four years after Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December 2019.
Earlier on May 15, citizenship was granted to 14 individuals, marking a significant milestone almost two months after the government issued the rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
The CAA amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to offer a fast-track route to Indian citizenship for migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who belong to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian communities and entered India on or before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution in their home countries.
The legislation has been the subject of intense debate and widespread protests across India.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in Bengal has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the implementation of the CAA.
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