West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has announced a deadline to speed up the granting of citizenship to minorities who moved to India from Bangladesh and Pakistan. He has set a target of settling all eligible applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and issuing citizenship certificates by 31 December.
The chief minister said about 250,000 (two and a half lakh) applications are currently awaiting settlement in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts. He made the announcement on Friday, 6 November, while opening a Kali Puja pandal at Aranghata in Nadia. He said the necessary administrative steps had been taken to complete the process quickly.
Instructions have been given to make sure no eligible applicant is left out. Many applications have been pending for a long time, Suvendu said, and his government now wants to complete document checks and hearings within a fixed time and move ahead with granting citizenship.
The chief minister said district magistrates in the districts concerned had been trained in line with the Union home ministry’s guidelines. Applicants’ documents will be verified and hearings held under the supervision of sub-divisional officers. Administrative coordination has been planned to finish the work within the deadline.
He had announced the same deadline on 1 November at the second International Matua Gosain Conference in Thakurnagar, North 24 Parganas. There he claimed that about 25,000 people in the state had already received citizenship through the CAA.
Citizenship has long been an important demand of refugee communities who came from Bangladesh, including the Matuas. The issue carries considerable social and political weight, especially in the border areas of Nadia and North 24 Parganas, which makes the announcement of settling 250,000 applications by 31 December particularly significant. Submitting an application does not guarantee citizenship, however: eligible applicants will receive certificates only after meeting the CAA’s conditions and passing document verification.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report