Shillong, March 12: The Union government on Monday implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), five years after it was passed in Parliament. The notification comes ahead of the announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha elections by the Election Commission of India.
The applications will be submitted in online mode for which a web portal has been provided.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah lauded the notification of Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 and said its implementation would enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in India.
The CAA, enacted by Parliament on December 11, 2019, has been a subject of intense debate and widespread protests across India.
As per The Gazette of India dated December 12, 2019, it stated that, “nothing in this section shall apply to tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under “The Inner Line” notified under Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873”.
Protests has begun in neighbouring State of Assam.
Opposition parties have called for a hartal (strike) as 16-party United Opposition Forum, Assam, (UOFA) announced a statewide hartal on Tuesday, besides taking up other agitational programmes in a phased manner.
After the announcement of the Act in December 2019, six people were killed in Assam, 19 in Uttar Pradesh, two in Karnataka, and 42 have been killed in the communal riots in Delhi so far.
In Meghalaya, two people were reported dead, including one member of the Khasi Students Union, and around 10 stabbing cases related to the CAA have been reported.
