Gujarat To Become First State To Grant Citizenship Under CAA Online

Kunal Chonkar

New Delhi: In a bid to blunt the protests and some non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled state government announcing their resolve not to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the BJP led central government has found a way out, the BJP is all set to grant online citizenship starting from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani-led government is all geared up to implement the centre’s decision of Online citizenship, which will curtail the role of district magistrate in the process. To strengthen the implementation, the BJP-led Gujarat government will bring a special resolution in the upcoming one-day Assembly session of the State legislature on 10 January.

“The session is primarily to approve a Constitutional amendment recently passed by both the Houses of Parliament to give a 10-year extension to reservations for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. However, the state government will also table a CAA resolution to extend their support to the centre and formalize the online process for citizenship application,” said a senior official from Gandhinagar.

CM Rupani in his rally on 24 December, had announced of his state becoming the numero uno in granting citizenship under CAA. The online version is claimed to avoid chaos and outrage which is rambling in the nation.

“Look at it as a smart and efficient way of processing the applications. The current process involves applications for citizenship that were to be routed through the district magistrate. However, starting with Gujarat, a new authority will be designated for CAA online purpose,” the officer explained.

Registration of 3,500 Pakistani Hindus sent to Centre 

According to reports, the BJP-led state government has sent applications of 3,500 Pakistani Hindus to the centre.

Local authorities claimed that applications of Pakistani Hindu nationals living in Kutch, Morbi, Rajkot, and Banaskantha regions of Gujarat have been documented and sent to New Delhi for further processing.

“Most of these refugees, who came to India, belong to the Sodha Rajput community of Pakistan. They speak the Gujarati-language and fled to India after being persecuted in Sindh province of Pakistan. Out of all these refugees, at present 1,100 people are living in Morbi, 1,000 people in Rajkot, 250 in Kutch, and 500 in the Banaskantha region. The rest of the refugees are living in other districts of Gujarat,” the official said.