GUWAHATI, Dec 26 - Though Assam and other parts of the country are witnessing large scale agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which would give citizenship to the minority communities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who came to India before December 31, 2014, the Centre has started the process of preparing the rules and procedures for the implementation of the Act.
Official sources told The Assam Tribune that the Government of India would have to notify the rules and procedures before implementing the CAA and the process of preparing it has started. However, it may take some time to formulate the rules and procedures for the implementation of the CAA.
Sources said that the Government has started the process of taking the views of the concerned persons for framing the rules and procedures. Before the implementation of the Act, the Government would have to notify how a person can apply for Indian citizenship under the provisions of the Act, who would be the designated officer for receiving such application etc. Other issues like formats of the applications, documents to be submitted with the applications, time frame for submission of applications, whether online applications would be accepted etc would also have to be included in the rules and procedures of implementation of the Act.
The officials concerned would have to be issued guidelines on how to deal with the applications, how to check the credentials of the persons who file applications etc.
As per the CAA, migrants who came without valid documents can also apply for Indian citizenship and this will create a major problem for the designated officers if clear cut instructions are not issued by the Government in this regard. The problem will be more acute in case of the migrants who came from Bangladesh.
Most of the people who came from Pakistan and Afghanistan came with valid documents, but in case of Bangladesh, the situation is different as majority came illegally without valid documents by taking advantage of the porous international border and it would be difficult for the designated officers to determine on which date a particular person entered India. It is still not clear whether a person�s statement will be accepted on face value. The Government would have to clarify such issues in the rules and procedures for implementation of the CAA, sources said.
