Committee to meet on May 20 to speed up citizenship process

Pardeep Sharma

Chandigarh, May 16

The dream of 75 migrants from neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, to get Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, is set to be realised as the Empowered Committee will meet on May 20 to take a call on the grant of citizenship to them.

Confirming that 75 migrants have applied for citizenship, Lalit Jain, state Director, Census Operations and Director Citizen Registration, who is also chairman of the Empowered Committee, said the committee would meet on May 20 to fast track the process.

A majority of applicants who had applied online are from Rohtak, Fatehabad, Sirsa and Gurugram districts. The grant of citizenship to over 300 applicants has renewed the hopes of 150 Hindu migrant families from Pakistan (residing at Ellenabad, Sirsa) that they might also get citizenship after 30 years.

Will apply afresh

We have hope following the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act. We will apply online again to get citizenship soon. — Surta Ram, Ellenabad resident

Hailing from Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts in Pakistan, the families arrived in India between 1990 and 1998 on visitor visas.

The BJP-led Union government had notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, on March 11, paving the way for the implementation of the controversial CAA.

Though there are reportedly hundreds of migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who belong to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities and entered India before the 2014 deadline, online registration has been slow in Haryana. The Congress has been opposing the CAA, terming it “discriminatory”.

District-level committees, under the Senior Superintendent or Superintendent of Post (designated officer), with representatives from Central and state governments, have been constituted to “verify the documents submitted by the applicant”.

The Empowered Committee will examine the applications through the district-level committees. If it is satisfied with the applicant’s suitability, a registration certificate, digitally signed by the chairperson, will be granted.

Surta Ram, a Hindu migrant from Pakistan living at Ellenabad, said, “With the implementation of CAA, we are preparing our files afresh to apply online,” he said.

As per official figures, there are around 150 families with a population of about 550 at Ellenabad. Their visas were extended multiple times, but their passports expired in 2003, leading to their classification as illegal migrants.

(Inputs: Anil Kakkar, Sirsa)