Over 31,000 immigrants immediate beneficiaries of Citizenship Bill

NEW DLEHI: Around 31,313 immigrants who belong to six minority (non-Muslim) religions from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan likely to benefit from the proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955.

According to reports, the immigrants belonging to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians have so far availed the long-term visa (LTV) granted to them on grounds of ‘religious persecution’ and who had applied for citizenship will immediately from the proposed new law.

Intelligence Bureau (IB) provided the number of immediate beneficiaries to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

The JPC report, citing the IB, was tabled in Parliament on January 7, reported moneycontrol. “As per our records, there are 31,313 persons belonging to minority communities (Hindus: 25,447, Sikhs: 5,807, Christians: 55, Buddhists: 2 and Parsis: 2) who have been granted a long term visa on the basis of their claim of religious persecution in their respective countries and want Indian citizenship. Hence, these persons will be immediate beneficiaries,” the IB Director Rajiv Jain informed the panel.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, passed in the Lok Sabha, aims to remove hurdles for eligible migrants of six minority groups from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan from getting Indian citizenship.