Kolkata, August 1: Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari stated on Saturday that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of 2019 is intended to provide citizenship rather than revoke it.
His remarks came during an event in New Town, Kolkata, where he distributed Indian citizenship certificates to 300 members of the Matua community from North 24 Parganas district.
The Chief Minister announced that all pending applications for citizenship under the CAA in West Bengal will be processed within the next six months.
While addressing the gathering, Adhikari emphasized that the CAA’s purpose is to grant citizenship, not to take it away. He urged eligible individuals to come forward and apply under the act, assuring that more certificates will be issued in the coming months.
The CAA aims to provide Indian citizenship to refugees from six communities (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian) who fled religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014.
According to Adhikari, a total of 23,956 citizenship certificates have been issued so far, with 5,966 certificates granted in the last 11 weeks since the formation of the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.
He noted that 230,605 applications have been received statewide, with Nadia district receiving the highest number of 10,191 certificates, followed by North 24 Parganas with 8,930 certificates.
Following discussions with the central home secretary, Adhikari expects the process of granting legal and administrative powers to district magistrates for the swift resolution of CAA applications to begin within a month.
He criticized the previous Trinamool Congress government for misleading the public on the CAA issue. Adhikari claimed that the former government misrepresented the CAA as part of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), causing confusion among the public, particularly within the Muslim community. He stated that false propaganda suggested that applying under the CAA would result in loss of jobs, ration benefits, or access to the Lakshmi Bhandar scheme. He concluded that the truth has now emerged, as even opposition legislators willingly participated in the event.
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