Bangladeshi woman living in Assam becomes first to get Indian citizenship under CAA
Silchar: A 40-year-old woman residing in Assam’s Sribhumi district has become the first woman in the state to be granted Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). She had entered India from Bangladesh in 2007.
According to a report published by NDTV on Saturday, Senior advocate Dharmananda Deb, a former Foreigners Tribunal (FT) member in Silchar, said the woman, who uses the surname Banerjee, came to Silchar in 2007 to accompany a relative undergoing treatment at Silchar Medical College and Hospital. During her stay, she met a man from Sribhumi district, formerly Karimganj, married him, and decided to settle in Assam. The couple later had a son.
Her family in Bangladesh's Chittagong still lives there, but she had long wished to become an Indian national. After the CAA rules were notified last year, she said.
Her first application, filed in July last year, was rejected due to administrative confusion arising from the delimitation exercise conducted ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. As per the report, Badarpur area, where she now lives, was partially moved from Sribhumi to Cachar, creating uncertainty over her district jurisdiction. The lawyer reapplied, and her case was finally approved.
Deb reportedly said she is the first woman in Assam to receive citizenship under the CAA, and notably the first in the state to be granted citizenship through the registration route.
"This was granted under Section 5(1)(c), read with Section 6B of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which allows a person married to an Indian citizen to register as an Indian citizen after residing in India for seven years," NDTV quoted the senior advocate as saying.
Another man, 61, from the Cachar district, also received citizenship.
According to the report, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued the citizenship certificates on Friday, and the citizenship is deemed to have taken effect from the date the applicants first entered India. Deb declined to disclose their names, citing possible social harassment.
The CAA, passed on December 11, 2019 reportedly, had sparked state-wide protests, particularly in Assam. Since the rules were notified last year, nearly 40 people in the state have applied. As per the report, the legislation allows Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Parsi migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India between March 25, 1971, and December 31, 2014, to apply for Indian citizenship.
Assam has nearly two lakh individuals identified as doubtful citizens, though only a small number have applied under the CAA so far. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly said that most Hindus migrated to Assam before the 1971 cut-off.
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Mamata blames EC for 'failing to protect' judicial officers gheraoed over voter name deletion
Sagardighi (WB) (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday blamed the Election Commission for "failing to protect" judicial officers engaged in the SIR exercise in West Bengal's Malda district.
Seven judicial officers engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) were rescued by security forces after protesters gheraoed them for several hours on Wednesday over the deletion of names from the electoral rolls.
"I condemn the Election Commission for failing to protect the judicial officers," Banerjee said, addressing an election rally here in Murshidabad district.
Claiming that the EC posted its own officers in civil and police administration after announcement of assembly polls in the state, Banerjee accused the poll body of having "totally failed to control law and order".
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Several officers, including the state's chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police (DGP), were replaced in West Bengal soon after the assembly polls were announced by the Election Commission.
"All my powers have been taken away, I have never seen such an Election Commission," the chief minister said.
Banerjee claimed that the BJP's game plan is to get the assembly polls cancelled in Bengal and to get President's Rule imposed.
"There are communal people in the BJP, and some communal people have also entered your ranks," Banerjee said, addressing the rally.
She claimed that such people flew in from Hyderabad with money from the BJP and are trying to divide the Muslim votes in the state.
