82 Pakistani migrants in Rajasthan have been granted citizenship: Home Ministry

The Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, in his written reply to the Lok Sabha stated that the Central government has granted citizenship to 82 Pakistani migrants in Rajasthan.

Shah presented data from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and said that the Central government, in granting the citizenships, has exercised powers conferred to it by Section 16 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

He also specified that District Collectors of 16 districts, including the three districts of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Jaipur in the state of Rajasthan, and the Home Secretaries of 7 states including Rajasthan would also exercise the power of the Central government in granting Indian citizenship.

The citizenship would be granted by registration or naturalisation to legal migrants belonging to six minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The communities are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jain, Parsi, and Christians.

As per latest MHA data 41,331 Pakistan nationals and 4193 Afghan nationals belonging to religious minorities have been reported to be living in India on Long term basis as on December 31,2018.

The government's efforts to grant citizenship to migrants from these three countries have till now been resisted by the Opposition with complaints of changing demographics of the country, and allegations of discrimination along religious lines.