According to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Union government started granting citizenship to applicants in West Bengal, Haryana, and Uttarakhand on Wednesday under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The MHA has claimed that on March 11, the Centre notified the CAA rules 2024.
In December 2019, Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
The ministry in a statement stated that the applicants have received citizenship from their respective State Empowered Committees. Two months after the MHA announced the guidelines for the CAA’s implementation, on May 15, the Centre granted the first batch of citizenship certificates to 14 applicants in New Delhi.
“The Rules envisage manner of application form, procedure for processing applications by District Level Committee (DLC) and scrutiny and grant of citizenship by State Level Empowered Committee (EC). In pursuance of these rules, applications have been received from persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have entered India up to December 31, 2014, on account of persecution on grounds of religion or fear of such persecution,” a government spokesperson said.
(with PTI inputs)