India
Today: New Delhi: Tuesday, 03 March 2020.
In
response to an RTI query, the Citizenship Wing in Foreigners Division of
Ministry of Home Affairs said that records of citizenship applications are not
required to be maintained as per the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955
and rules made under the act.
The
Centre has no data on immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who
have applied for citizenship under the Citizenship Act (Amendment) Act (CAA) -
a reply to an RTI (Right to Information) query to the Ministry of Home Affairs
revealed on Monday.
According
to the RTI reply, the records of citizenship applications are not available
with the government.
Chandigarh-based
RTI activist Dinesh Chaddha had asked the home ministry to furnish details
regarding the total number of people from other nations who have applied for
Indian citizenship.
Chaddha
also asked for information regarding the religion of the applicants and the
country they belonged to.
The
RTI had also sought the number of total applicants from Hindu, Muslim, Jain and
other religions who are from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
In
response to the RTI query, the Citizenship Wing in Foreigners Division of
Ministry of Home Affairs said that records of citizenship applications are not
required to be maintained as per the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955
and rules made under the act.
Speaking
to India Today TV, Dinesh Chaddha expressed surprise that the ministry has
provided no information about his queries regarding citizenship.
"I
wanted to know how many such immigrants will benefit from the CAA because the
government had been giving vague figures," Dinesh Chaddha said.
Dinesh
Chaddha further said: "It appears that no proper preparation was carried
out by the ministry before bringing in such important legislation and has
caused so much unrest in the country."
"Even
yesterday [Sunday] at his Kolkata rally, the Amit Shah claimed that lakhs will
benefit from CAA, but his Ministry has no concrete information about how many
will actually benefit," Dinesh Chaddha added.
The
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), passed in Parliament last year, offers
citizenship to people belonging to six minorities - Hindus, Parsis, Jains,
Buddhists, Christians and Sikhs, but not Muslims - who had come to India from
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
During
a discussion on the CAA in the Rajya Sabha last year, Union Home Minister Amit
Shah had said the new citizenship Act will bring relief to lakhs of people.
The
exclusion of the Muslims from the act had triggered nationwide protests against
the CAA even as many called the act "unconstitutional" and
"undemocratic". Meanwhile, in Assam, the people protested against the
Act fearing that the inclusion of people from other countries will drastically
affect their cultures and language.