Only eight applied for citizenship under CAA in Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said only eight persons have applied for citizenship under the CAA from the state so farSpeaking at a press conference Sarma noted that out of these applicants only two have proceeded to attend interviews with relevant authoritiesThe Centre on March 11 implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 CAA by notifying the rules four years after the law was passed by Parliament to fasttrack citizenship for undocumented nonMuslim migrants from Pakistan Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31 2014 and stayed here for five yearsWe conducted outreach programmes in the Barak valley and approached manyHindu Bengali families and asked them to apply for citizenship under CAA They refused to do so saying they would prefer fighting their cases at the Foreigners Tribunal FT Sarma saidForeigners Tribunals are quasijudicial bodies exclusive to Assam to decide the nationality issue of doubtful citizensThe CM claimed that most of the HinduBengali families who were not included in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens NRC told him that they have documents to prove their Indian citizenship and prefer the FT route than applying through the CAALegal experts said people declared foreigners by the FTs can subsequently apply under the CAA if their nationality verdict is unfavourableWhile a case for citizenship is going on there is no question of applying for the same under a new law a senior advocate saidAccording to legal provisions only the FTs can declare a person a foreigner in Assam and subsequently higher courts can be approached if the verdict is not favourableAsked whether the state government is dropping cases in FTs against HinduBengalis Sarma clarified This is misleading We cannot drop any case We are simply advising that before initiating a case individuals should apply through the CAA portal Even if a case is filed there wont be any outcome because these people are eligible for citizenshipThe CM said he will request the Advocate General to flag the issue of CAA so that FTs can give time to people whose cases are going on to apply for citizenship under the newly implemented lawI cant give a direction to court to pause while deciding citizenship cases The FT judges themselves have to decide as they know the latest situation he addedHowever Sarma acknowledged that a letter was issued in the first week of July by the Home Department to Assam Polices border wing The letter instructed them not to refer cases of people from Hindu Sikh Buddhist Parsi Jain and Christian communities who entered India before December 31 2014 directly to the FTsIssued by Home and Political Secretary Parth Pratim Majumdar to the Special Director General of Police Border the letter directed that such people should instead be advised to apply through the citizenship portal for their applications to be considered by the Indian governmentIt was just a statutory order There is nothing objectionable in that and it was as per law Sarma addedAsked about such few number of applications in CAA Sarma said the opposition myth that 1520 lakh Bangladeshis will get citizenship in Assam has been bustedIn the antiCAA movement five Assamese youths lost their lives So they made the sacrifice to prevent only these eight people This abysmally low number of eight applications of which only two turned up for interview is a bit surprising for us also he addedTo a query if fear psychosis of being tagged as BangladeshiturnedIndian citizen is preventing HinduBengalis from applying through CAA Sarma said no such factor is working in the Barak valley but it is true to a certain extent in the Brahmaputra valleySarma said anyone who came to Assam in 2015 or later will be deported back to their country of originAccording to the Assam Accord names of all foreigners coming to the state on or after March 25 1971 would be detected and deleted from electoral rolls and steps would be taken to deport themThe final NRC was released on August 31 2019 by excluding 1906657 persons A total of 31121004 names were included out of 33027661 applicantsOn people facing issues due to blocking of Aadhaar cards Sarma said around nine lakh cards were blocked as people had applied during update work of the NRCAt that time the government had transformed the Aadhaar centres to NRC centres These people had gone there to get Aadhaar but it was blocked due to a clash of timing only We are examining the list now he addedThe CM said that after the assessment the state government will actively take up the issue with the CentreThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever