ByBiswa Kalyan Purkayastha
Aug 14, 2024 09:57 AM IST
Dulon Das, 50, applied for Indian citizenship in April after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) rules were notified over four years after the passage of the law
Dulon Das, 50, whose family came to Silchar in Assam from Bangladesh’s Sylhet in 1988, has become the first person to get Indian Citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in the northeastern state. He said he received a message from the Union home ministry on Tuesday about his citizenship. Das added he was asked to visit Guwahati’s Regional Passport Office to collect his citizenship certificate.
Das applied for Indian citizenship in April after the CAA rules were notified over four years after the passage of the law. His family came to Assam in 1988 after multiple attacks. Das has been voting in Assam since 1996 and his family members have documents such as Aadhar. They did not apply for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) since it was impossible to establish the family tree. Having come to India post 1971, Das applied for citizenship under CAA.
A lawyer in Silchar, who helped the Hindu NRC applicants, suggested to him not to apply for it and wait for the CAA. A father of two, Das bought land in Silchar in the early 2000s and got his driving licence during that time.
The citizenship process included police verification and Das produced documents such as the deed of their land ownership in Sylhet.
Das’s lawyer said they were looking for the second option because it would be difficult for Das to go to Guwahati, over 300 km away, to receive the certificate.
Dharmananda Deb, a former member of Foreigners Tribunal-4 of Silchar who represented Das as his lawyer, said eight people applied for citizenship under CAA across Assam. “…so far and two of them have withdrawn.”
Deb told reporters that six applications under CAA from Assam were under the Union home ministry’s review and four of them have documents to get citizenship sooner.
The central government notified the CAA rules in March before the general elections. Lack of awareness has been cited among the reasons for fewer applications.
CAA was passed in 2019 to fast-track the citizenship process for non-Muslims, who have entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014. The notification of the rules paved the way for granting citizenship to undocumented immigrants from the three neighbouring countries. The law came into effect with the notification of the rules.
The promise of implementing the CAA was a major poll plank of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last Lok Sabha and the 2021 assembly polls in West Bengal.
