The Uttarakhand government would soon begin the process to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state by identifying refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, minister Madan Kaushik said on Friday.
The development has come after the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh gave a list of about 32,000 refugees to the Centre for granting them Indian citizenship.
“Our government would soon initiate the work on CAA by identifying refugees for granting them Indian citizenship as per the law. The citizenship would be granted to any refugee who would apply for it as per the law,” Kaushik, who is also the government spokesperson, said while speaking to HT.
“If the refugee applicant fulfils all the parameters of the law, he would be granted the citizenship,” he added.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state had earlier conducted extensive mass outreach awareness campaigns on CAA through its leaders and legislators.
Under the initiative, the party’s senior leaders, including chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, Union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur and MP Ajay Bhatt, held at least 13 press conferences at different places from December 30 and January 15.
The party leaders also held more than 300 rallies across the state to garner public support on the act during the same period.
The amended citizenship law will grant citizenship to non-Muslims, who escaped to India fearing religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
They will also be eligible to get citizenship by naturalisation in half the time.
Critics say the law discriminates on the basis of religion and undermines the Constitution and several parties have filed petitions against CAA before the Supreme Court challenging the act.
The BJP-led government has denied all allegations amid protests against CAA across the country.
