CAA rules to be notified ‘well before’ announcement of Lok Sabha elections
New Delhi: The rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 will be notified ‘well before’ the announcement of Lok Sabha elections, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
Under the CAA brought in by the Narendra Modi government, persecuted non-Muslim migrants – Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians – who came to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan by December will be granted Indian nationality. 31, 2014.
Large-scale protests broke out in parts of the country after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and subsequently received Presidential assent.
“We are going to issue rules for CAA soon. Once the rules are issued, the law can be implemented and eligible people can be given Indian citizenship,” the official said.
After a delay of more than four years, rules are necessary for the implementation of the CAA.
Asked whether the rules would be notified before the announcement of the next Lok Sabha elections, which is likely to be held in April-May, the official said, “Yes, much before that.”
“The rules are ready and the online portal is also ready and the entire process will be online. Applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents. No documents will be asked from the applicants,” the official said. ,
On December 27, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that no one can stop the implementation of CAA as it is the law of the country and accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading people on the issue.
Addressing a party meeting in Kolkata, Shah said it is the BJP’s commitment to implement the CAA. Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is opposing the CAA.
The promise to implement the controversial CAA was a major election plank of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and assembly elections in West Bengal. Saffron party leaders consider this a laudable factor that led to the rise of the BJP in the state.
According to the Rules of Parliamentary Procedure, rules for any law must be framed within six months of the President’s assent or extension sought from the subordinate legislative committees in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Since 2020, the Home Ministry has been taking extensions from parliamentary committees at regular intervals to make rules.
More than a hundred people lost their lives during protests or police action after the law was passed by Parliament.
Meanwhile, over the past two years, more than 30 district magistrates and home secretaries of nine states have been given powers under the Citizenship Act to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Have gone. 1955.
According to the Home Ministry’s annual report for 2021-22, a total of 1,414 foreigners from these non-Muslim minority communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan were granted Indian citizenship from April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. By registration or naturalization under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The nine states where non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are granted Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization under the Citizenship Act 1955 are Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra.
The powers have not been given so far to officials in any district of Assam and West Bengal, where the issue is very politically sensitive.
