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The Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday has issued a notification, allowing the two district collectors districts in Gujarat — Mehsana and Anand — to grant citizenship certificates to the person belonging to the communities – Hindu, Sikh, Buddhists , Jains, Parsi, Christian, and from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
In their notification, the MHA states, “In exercise of the powers conferred by section 16 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955), the central government hereby directs that powers exercisable by it, for registration as a citizen of India under section 5, or for grant of certificate of naturalisation under section 6, of the Citizenship Act, 1955, in respect of any person belonging to the communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians (hereinafter referred to as the applicant), residing in the districts of Anand and Mehsana in the State of Gujarat, shall also be exercisable by the Collector of District Anand and District Mehsana, within whose jurisdiction the applicant is ordinarily resident, in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Rules, 2009.”
The MHA also asked to follow all the conditions, including the application for registration as citizen of India or grant of certificate of naturalisation as citizen of India under the said rules will be made by the applicant online, the verification of the application will be done by the collector at the district level and the application and the reports thereon will be made accessible simultaneously to the central government on online portal, the collector, may make such inquiry as he considers necessary for ascertaining the suitability of the applicant and for that purpose forwards the application online to such agencies for verification and comments as may be required for completing such an inquiry and the instructions issued by the central government from time to time in this regard will be strictly complied with by the state or Union territory and district concerned.
In August, Gujarat home minister Harsh Sanghavi had handed over Indian citizenship certificates to 40 Pakistani Hindus at the Ahmedabad collectorate. Since 2017, a total of 1,032 Pakistanis have been given citizenship by the district collector, stated an official release. As per the gazette notifications of 2016 and 2018, the district collectors of Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Kutch have been given powers to grant citizenship to minorities including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians living in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The candidates applying for citizenship are scanned by the Intelligence Bureau teams of both the state and central governments. In 2022, so far 107 Pakistani Hindus were given Indian citizen citizenship by Ahmedabad district collector, the release added.
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