Centre May Offer Citizenship Online to Bypass Dissenting States | Earth Indian

New Delhi: Facing resistance from state governments towards implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, the Centre may make the entire process of granting citizenship online so that states have no role to play. Kerala has become the first state to pass a resolution against the act that will grant citizenship to members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 — facing religious persecution there.

“We are thinking of designating a new authority instead of the district magistrate and make the entire process of application, examination of documents and granting Indian citizenship online,” a Home Ministry official said to PTI.

The Centre is also of the opinion that the state governments have no power to reject the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act as the legislation was enacted under the Union List of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.

The Kerala Assembly had on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding the scrapping of the controversial Act, amid raging countrywide protests against the legislation. The resolution was moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and the opposition Congress-led UDF supported the resolution while the BJP MLA O Rajagopal was the only one to dissent.

The CM also said that no detention centres will be coming up in the state. All administrative activities for the National Population Register have also been stalled in the state.

A number of states, including West Bengal, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, had already announced that the law is “unconstitutional”.

(With Inputs From PTI)




By Shivam Urkude || Earth Indian

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