NEW DELHI, Aug 1 - The Congress is likely to hold consultations with the MPs of Assam regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 which is likely to come up for passage later this week in Lok Sabha.
In this regard the AICC has constituted a special coordination committee, headed by KV Thomas and comprising P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Rajiv Jatav, and Jairam Ramesh, that will hold consultations with the party MPs from Assam, sources said.
The Congress has reservations over some of the provisions of the Bill, sources added.
As reported, the NDA Government tabled the Bill on July 18 in the Lok Sabha making nationals of various countries, including Bangladesh, eligible for acquiring Indian citizenship.
The Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh proposes to make minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for applying for Indian citizenship.
The Bill said that under the existing provisions of the Citizenship Act, persons belonging to the minority communities, who have either entered India without travel documents or the validity of whose documents has expired, are regarded as illegal migrants and hence, they are ineligible to apply for Indian citizenship. The Bill proposes �to make them eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.�
