New Delhi, 22 December: The government said that 3117 people from Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian minority communities who came from neighbouring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in the last four years have been given citizenship of India.
The total number of applications for citizenship received from Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian minority groups from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan during the years 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are 8244, said Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
During this, 3117 people of these minority communities have been given Indian citizenship.
Responding to another question, Rai said that in the five years from 2016 to 2020, a total of 4,177 foreigners have been given Indian citizenship. Indian citizenship has been given to 1106 in 2016, 817 in 2017, 628 in 2018, 987 in 2019 and 639 in 2020. At the same time, 10635 citizenship applications are pending with the government till December 14. Among these applications are 1152 cases from Afghanistan, 7306 from Pakistan and 161 from Bangladesh.
It is noteworthy that in 2019, the Government of India (GOI) had passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). In this, provisions were made to give speedy citizenship to the people of Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian minority communities who came from neighbouring countries Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
During that time the Home Minister had told that since 2014, 600 Muslims from these countries have also been given citizenship by the government.
