Past 10 years, 73 persons applied to Goa govt for Indian citizenship

Panaji: Over the last ten years, 73 people, mostly from minority communities, applied to state govt to acquire Indian citizenship. However, only 24% of them were able to obtain it.

A total of 18 persons were able to get Indian citizenship. Some withdrew their applications, whereas some applications were rejected by govt. Most applications were forwarded to the Union ministry of home affairs for a decision on the application.

A senior official said that those who applied for Indian citizenship under CAA were processed quickly, and two were granted Indian citizenship. He said that CAA would help Goans with Pakistani nationality to process their applications faster than the usual process.

Union govt notified the citizenship amendment rules, 2024, in March that year, paving the way for the operationalisation of the CAA, which was passed by Parliament in 2019. As per the amendment, migrants who entered India by Dec 31, 2014, and suffered "religious persecution or fear of religious persecution" in their country of origin, like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, were made eligible for citizenship under the new law.

A senior citizen, Joseph Pereira, a former Pakistani national, was the first person in Goa to be granted citizenship under the CAA. He tirelessly pursued Indian citizenship for 11 years. However, the introduction of the CAA expedited the process, enabling him to secure his citizenship within a mere one-and-a-half months.

Another former Pakistani national, Shane Sebastian Pereira, achieved his long-awaited dream of becoming an Indian citizen after 43 years. Pereira, who was born in Pakistan and entered India in 1981 when he was four, became the second person in Goa to be granted citizenship under the CAA.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant handed Pereira his citizenship certificate in the presence of his wife and twin daughters. Pereira, who married in Goa, said that he got Indian citizenship after waiting for a long time. “It took me 43 years to get Indian citizenship. I came to India when I was four years old. I did my schooling in India and even got married. After I got married, I surrendered my Pakistani passport but failed to get Indian citizenship,” he said.


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