West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced on Saturday that all pending applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state will be disposed of within the next 6 months. He said that this law has been made to grant citizenship, not to take away anyone’s citizenship.
At a CAA certificate distribution program organized in New Town, Suvendu distributed citizenship certificates to about 300 people from the Matua community of North 24 Parganas. He said that the previous Trinamool Congress government had misled people about this law for political gains.
What is CAA
CAA is called the Citizenship Amendment Act in English. It paves the way for granting citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
Citizenship will be given to people from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution. Only people from these three countries will be able to apply for citizenship under this.
People will have to apply online. The applicant will have to state when they came to India. They will be able to apply even without a passport or other travel documents. Under this, the minimum period of stay in India for these refugees has been kept at 5 years, whereas for other foreigners under normal citizenship rules, this period is 11 years.
CAA process begins in Bengal
CM Suvendu Adhikari said on Wednesday, ‘Today we have started the legal process. People from 7 communities who come under CAA and those who came to India till December 31, 2024 will get the benefit of the citizenship law. Police will not be able to detain them.
Those who do not come under the purview of CAA are illegal infiltrators. State police will arrest them and hand them over to BSF. Along with this, he handed over 27 kilometers of land on the India-Bangladesh border to BSF. Fencing will be installed on this and security structure will be built.
In a meeting held in Kolkata to hand over land to BSF, he said- This is just the beginning. The process of handing over land will be completed in 2 weeks. Wherever land is needed for border security in future, the state government will make it available to BSF.
23,956 certificates issued so far
Suvendu said that so far 23,956 citizenship certificates have been issued. This includes 5,966 certificates issued in the last 11 weeks after the new BJP government was formed.
A total of 2,30,605 applications have been received from across the state. Nadia district has the highest number with 10,191 beneficiaries receiving certificates, while in North 24 Parganas 8,930 people have received this benefit.
