CAA final draft likely to be ready by Mar 2024: Union Min
KOLKATA: Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra said that the final draft of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA is expected to be ready by March 30 next year.
The BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh, while addressing a gathering of the Matua community at Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas district on Sunday, asserted that nobody can snatch citizenship rights from Matuas, who had fled religious persecution in Bangladesh.
“The process to roll out CAA has gained momentum in the last couple of years... some issues are being sorted out. Nobody can snatch citizenship rights from the Matuas. By March next year, the final draft of the CAA is expected to be ready for coming into force,” he said to a thundering applause. Local BJP MP and Union minister Santanu Thakur was by his side.
The CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan entering India before December 31, 2014.
Reacting to the claim, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen said, “The BJP remembers Matuas and the CAA only during elections. The saffron party will never be able to roll out CAA in West Bengal.”
“The BJP’s false claims are becoming clear to the Matuas and others. The saffron party will be rejected by all in next year’s elections,” he said.
According to the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, people will be considered citizens of India from the date they enter India and will not be considered criminals according to their foreign and passports acts. It is important to note that the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 does not apply to people living in tribal areas like Meghalaya and Tripura or other tribal or backward areas.
It also reduces the qualifying length of the residency phase in the country for all such migrants as covered in the ACT not less than 11 years to not less than five years.It also has a provision whereby the government can cancel the Overseas Citizen of India card of individuals on the grounds of violation of any laws for a major or minor offence. The enactment of the CAA led to widespread protests across India, with critics arguing that it undermines the secular principles of the Indian Constitution by linking citizenship to religious identity.
