Rajasthan: 16k Pakistani Hindus have to wait for Indian citizenship

The process of granting Indian citizenship to 16,000 Pakistani Hindus living in various parts of Rajasthan seems to be hanging in a limbo because of discrepancies in the records submitted by the state government and the Union Ministry of Home.

“We submitted online records of more than12,000 Pakistani Hindus living in Rajasthan to the home ministry and record of additional 4,000 migrants offline. Since the record forwarded did not tally with the record of the union ministry, they are not able to get Indian citizenship. Recently, officials of the home ministry who visited Rajasthan were apprised of the situation. I hope the issue is sorted out soon,” said home minister Gulab Chand Kataria.

Meanwhile, there is a reason to rejoice for over 5,000 Pakistani Hindus who have been living in the state for years as the home minister on Thursday held an important meeting with ACS (home) Deepak Upreti, ADG (intelligence) UR Sahoo which after deliberation approved to hold camps to grant the citizenship to them. 

“In the third week of May, the state government has decided to hold camps across the state to grant the citizenship to 5,100 Pak Hindus whose verification has been done. Their report from intelligence is yet to come out though,” said the minister, adding that most of the eligible Pak Hindus are currently settled in Jodhpur. 

The Raje government has taken the decision to grant citizenship to Pak Hindus as per a circular issued in 2016 by the union home ministry. The circular empowers the state government and collectors to issue certificate of the citizenship after compliance of procedures laid which includes proper verification and intelligence inputs required.

STATUS OF MIGRANTS

• Past: Migrants faced severe atrocities in Pakistan including the kidnapping of Hindu minor girls and their conversions.
• Present: They face several issues including having authentic documents and language barriers as they are fluent in Urdu and Sindhi
• They live in rented apartments which are difficult to find due to their ‘Pakistani’ citizenship.
• Future: Situations improve once they receive citizenship as they are able to avail benefits under various schemes.
• Jaipur Development Authority currently does not have any plans to provide them with affordable housing once the status is approved.