NEW DELHI, Jan 2 - In a move that might have serious implications for infiltration-affected states like Assam, the Centre has suddenly delegated deputy commissioners (DCs) of several North and West Indian states, the authority to issue Indian citizenship to Pakistani Hindu migrants.
The move is significant given that if the Centre delegates similar power to DCs in Assam and neighbouring West Bengal, then the fate of the pending Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 would be of little relevance.
Interestingly, the Centre�s order came within days of the visit of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Citizenship Bill to Jaisalmer and Ahmedabad. The Parliamentary Committee is yet to tour Assam.
Sources said that the states where the DCs have been empowered to grant citizenship to Hindu migrant Pakistanis include select districts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Delhi (West and South). In Rajasthan, the DCs of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer will be granted the authority, sources confided.
The application fees for the citizenship have been reduced to Rs 100 per person. The move by the Centre has been welcomed by some bodies in those states. They hailed the Ministry of Home Affairs for granting citizenship rights to the Hindu migrants from Pakistan, said officials here.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 introduced by the Union Home Minister in the Lok Sabha on July 19 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 community, 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. �It is proposed to make them eligible to apply for Indian citizenship,� the statement of object and reasons said.
The amendment Bill proposes that many persons of Indian origin, including persons belonging to the minority community from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, have been applying for citizenship under Section 5 of the Act, but are unable to produce proof of their origin. Hence, they are forced to apply for citizenship by naturalisation under Section 6 of the Act, which among others things prescribes 12-year residency as a qualification for naturalisation in terms of the Third Schedule to the Act.
This denies them many opportunities and advantages that may accrue only to citizens of India, even though they are likely to stay in India permanently.
It is proposed to amend the Third Schedule to the Act to make applicants belonging to minority communities from the three countries eligible for citizenship by naturalisation in seven years instead of the existing 12 years.
Meanwhile, the dates for visit by the Parliamentary Committee to Assam has not been finalised, said a committee member Ramen Deka. Another MP Sushmita Dev, who is also member of the panel, told this newspaper that she has requested chairman of the committee, Satyapal Singh to tour Assam ahead of the Budget Session of the Parliament.