By VIJAITA SINGH,SREEPARNA CHAKRABARTY
The Union Home Ministry is deliberating measures to simplify one of the provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which requires applicants to furnish a document proving he or she is a citizen of Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Afghanistan. The move comes amid several requests and concerns raised by probable beneficiaries, particularly in West Bengal, who had arrived from Bangladesh without any documents.
A senior government official told The Hindu that discussions are under way to amend Schedule 1A, which mandates that any of the nine requisite documents, issued by any government agency in the three countries, be submitted for acquiring citizenship under Section 6B of CAA.
Another official said that authorities handling the applications have been told that “CAA is a facilitative law and its spirit has to be understood while processing the applications”.
“If the document is not readily available, they can be submitted later or in due course and officials may record it as ‘pending for processing’. It is an enabling law,” said the second official.
The Hindu has accessed a presentation in Bengali which is in circulation among members of the Matua sect in West Bengal, which states that “documents [under Schedule 1A] can be submitted later” before an empowered committee and not necessarily while applying online.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here.
