HOUSE GRANTS GOVT MORE TIME TO FRAME RULES UNDER NEW CITIZENSHIP LAW
NEW DELHI: The government has been granted time till April 9 by Lok Sabha and July 9 by Rajya Sabha to frame rules under the citizenship law.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was notified on December 12, 2019 and came into force from January 10, 2020.
The Committees on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have granted time up to April 9 and July 9 respectively to frame these rules, he said in a written reply.
Rai said the foreigners covered under this CAA may submit applications for grant of Indian citizenship after appropriate rules are notified by the central government. Rules are mandatory for the implementation of any new or amended law and normally framed within six months of its enactment.
The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities — Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian — from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Those from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution in their respective countries, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
After the CAA was passed by Parliament, widespread protests were witnessed in different parts of the country leading to the death of nearly 100 people in police firing and other violence.
The riots in Northeast Delhi last year was also attributed to the CAA protests which initially triggered with the clashes between pro and anti-CAA groups. However, Union minister Amit Shah had described the protests against the CAA as “mostly political” and asserted that no Indian will lose his or her nationality due to the legislation.
Utpal Parashar
GUWAHATI: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday promised to make efforts to correct the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to protect genuine citizens and detect illegal infiltrators to ensure the protection of poll-bound Assam’s civilisation. The pledge is part of the 10 commitments made in BJP’s vision document for the assembly elections.
The updated NRC for the detection of undocumented foreigners was released in August 2019 as per the Supreme Court’s directives. It excluded 1.9 million of the nearly 33 million people, who applied for inclusion in NRC. The BJP has rejected the NRC as “faulty” saying genuine citizens got left out while foreigners got included. The NRC is yet to be notified.
The document comes days after the release of Congress’s manifesto, which includes five guarantees such as ₹2,000 monthly to housewives, 200 units of free electricity to all households, an increase in daily wages of tea garden workers to ₹365, and the creation of 500,000 government jobs. The Congress has said that if voted to power, it will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed in 2019 to fasttrack the citizenship process for non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
The CAA triggered protests in Assam amid fears that it could dilute the 1985 Assam Accord and lead to a fresh influx of Bangladeshi Hindus. The accord provided for the deportation of all refugees and migrants, who have entered Assam after March 25, 1971. The CAA extends the deadline until December 31, 2014.
The BJP has promised to implement CAA in poll-bound
West Bengal but has not included the issue in its commitments to Assam’s voters.
“CAA has been passed by parliament and it will be implemented. I should not question Congress’s ideology or intellect, but how can central legislation passed by Parliament get changed by state legislation? Either Congress leaders are ignorant about it or they are cheating people of Assam and both are detrimental to the state,” said BJP chief Jagat Prakash Nadda, who released the document, when asked about CAA.
Nadda said the process to implement Assam Accord’s Clause 6, which assures safeguards in jobs and representation for the Assamese people, is on. He added the BJP is committed to it.
Assam goes to polls in three phases on March 27, April 1, and April 6.
The BJP has also committed to speeding up the delimitation process in Assam to protect the political rights of the Assamese people. The process, which includes fixing or redrawing of boundaries of parliamentary and legislative constituencies, has been stalled in Assam as per a Centre’s directive.
The BJP has promised to make Assam self-reliant in food production.
“We commit to make Assam the fastest job-creating state in the country. Our government will create 200,000 government jobs in the next five years and the first 100,000 would be provided till March 31, 2022. We will also create 800,000 jobs in the private sector,” said Nadda.
BJP has committed to creating 200,000 entrepreneurs annually and one million of them in the next five years by giving them technical support and funds as part of the Swami Vivekananda Youth Empowerment Yojana.
Under the scheme, ₹50,000 as seed money has been given to nearly 150,000 youths.
Nadda said the BJP will give land rights to all landless people in Assam. The government has launched a similar scheme under which over 300,000 landless have been given land allotment certificates so far.
“Assam was full of problems five years ago, but our government has been able to address some of them by providing inclusive development. We have gained momentum and are now ready to take a big leap in the coming years. Besides, the 10 commitments, we will work on improving connectivity, health, education, women empowerment, etc, and take Assam to newer heights,” said Nadda.
The BJP has also promised Mission Brahmaputra to control floods that hit Assam annually. “It will include scientific ways like dredging, management of tributaries, and construction of big reservoirs to divert the extra water,” said Nadda.
The BJP’s document pledges to cover three million families under the Orunudoi scheme under which ₹830 is given monthly to women from the marginalised families. The scheme was launched last year and covers around 1.7 million families. Nadda said payment under the scheme will be increased to ₹3,000.
The party has assured protection of Assam’s culture and identity by committing to remove illegal encroachers from all neoVaishnavite monasteries and prayer houses, or naamghars, and to give ₹2.5 lakh to each to them. The state has nearly 70,000 naamghars.
LS GRANTS GOVT TILL APRIL 9, WHILE RS GIVES IT TILL JULY 9 TO FRAME CAA RULES