Centre grants citizenship under CAA to applicants from West Bengal, Haryana and Uttarakhand

NEW DELHI: Indian citizenship has been granted to applicants from three states of the country-West Bengal, Haryana and Uttarakhand- on Wednesday. The Centre's move comes at a time when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that the Citizenship Amendment Act will not be implemented in West Bengal.

The Centre had issued the first set of citizenship certificates to 14 applicants in New Delhi on May 15, two months after the CAA notification. The central government notified the provisions of the Act on March 11, 2024, was was put on hold in the wake of protests. The applications are scrutinized by the district level committee and the state level committee and forwarded to the central committee. Citizenship is granted by the central committee chaired by the Director of Census. Applications for citizenship were accepted from Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan that move to India before December 31, 2014. Initially, citizenship was given to people from states like Rajasthan, UP and Assam. Most of them are refugees from Pakistan.