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Goans registered in Portugal's Registry may lose Indian citizenship

As India does not recognise dual citizenship, the central government has decided to set up a designate authority to decide citizenship on case to case basis.

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Generations of Goans may soon have to relinquish the privilege of dual citizenship of both Portugal and India that they have been enjoying for years and opt for single one.

As India does not recognise dual citizenship, the central government has decided to set up a designate authority to decide citizenship on case to case basis.

According to sources, while the Indian citizenship of those who have already taken Portuguese passport may be relinquished, option will remain be open for others who have got the Bill of Identity from Portugal government.

As the number of people who have Bill of Identity run into lakhs, the inter-ministerial committee recommends setting up of more than one designate authority to settle citizenship issue as per Indian Citizenship Act, 1955 and Citizenship Rules 2009.

The decision was taken after an inter-ministerial committee headed by additional secretary in the home ministry B K Prasad and consisting of joint secretary level officials from external affairs and law ministry gave its recommendations on the issue.

The panel was set up by the central government following a letter of the then Governor of Goa, B V Wanchoo, and the then Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar (currently defence minister), who had informed that around four lakh Goans have registered their names in Portugal's Central Registry of Births, Marriages and Death.

But the decision may be fraught with danger of large number of Goans opting to relinquish Indian citizenship and opting for Portugal citizenship. In 2015, an average of 2,000 people said to have surrendered their Indian passports. Around 40,000 Goans are known to have registered births in Lisbon, although unofficial estimates put that figure between 300,000 and 400,000.

At the root of the issue is Portugal deciding very late in 1974 to acknowledge India's sovereignty over Goa and later passing a decree that the residents of Goa, Daman and Diu who consider them to be citizens of Portugal can become a bona fide citizens by getting a Bill of Identity from the Portugal government.

In 1993 Portugal opened a Consulate in Goa that gave Goans the option to get their, children and grandchildren names registered in the central registry of births and death to become a citizen of Portugal by having Bill of Identity in their names.

Subsequently, a lot of Goan residents got Bill of Identity that allowed them rights at par with Portugal citizens. The race to get Bill of Identity gained more momentum with the creation of European Union and its expansion as it it gave Goans the right to settle and buy property anywhere in Europe.

The fear of losing out on a large number of Indian nationals has also been reflected upon by Goa chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar.

"I feel that people spend hours together outside the consulate to get the passport. They are in a hurry to lose the citizenship of their country. This is sad," the chief minister observed said.

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