Center can implement CAA rules from first week of March, portal ready - Sources

The Citizenship Amendment Act will come into effect from the first week of March. According to government sources, CAA rules can be implemented in the first week of next month. According to media sources, the rules of CAA will be implemented in the first week of March or any day after that, with the implementation of the rules, the CAA law will come into force.

Highly placed sources in the government said that a proper portal has been prepared to implement CAA.

Officials said that the rules are ready and the online portal is also ready, as the entire process will be online. Applicants must indicate the year in which they entered India without travel documents. No documents will be asked from the applicants.

CAA law i.e. Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 opens the way for giving Indian citizenship to those minorities of three neighboring countries Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who have taken refuge in India for a long time.

There is no provision in this law to take away the citizenship of any Indian, irrespective of his religion.

Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also said on Saturday that the rules for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be issued before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and the process of providing Indian nationality to the beneficiaries will start soon.

Amit Shah said, “CAA is the law of the country and its notification will definitely be issued. It will be released before the elections. No one should have any confusion about this. He said that giving Indian citizenship to the persecuted minorities of neighboring countries was also a promise of the Congress leadership.

The Home Minister said, “When Partition happened, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians – everyone wanted to come to India after facing religious persecution there. They (Congress leaders) had promised to give citizenship to these people and said that you all are welcome. But the (Congress) leaders retracted their statement.

The Home Minister said that he wants to make it clear that CAA is not a law to take away anyone's citizenship. He said, “Our Muslim brothers are being provoked on the issue of CAA. No one's citizenship can be taken away through CAA, because there is no such provision in this law. CAA has been made to give citizenship to those people who have come from Bangladesh and Pakistan after facing religious persecution. No one should oppose this law.

After the CAA was passed by the Parliament in December 2019 and received the assent from the President, there were large-scale protests in some parts of the country. After a delay of more than four years, rules are required to be made for the implementation of CAA.

The promise to implement the controversial CAA was a major election issue of the BJP in the last assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.

Under the CAA, the Modi government at the Center wants to provide Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan - Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians - who came to India till December 31, 2014.