MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
(SHRI MULLAPPALLY RAMACHANDRAN)
(a) : No, Madam. The provision available in the Citizenship Act,1955
and the rules made for seeking Indian citizenship are applicable to all
the foreigners (including those who migrated from neighboring countries).
There is no discrimination on the basis of nationality or gender of a
person.
(b) to (d): The grant of Indian citizenship is a multi-level and
multi-agency activity under the provisions of Citizenship Act, 1955.
As per rule 11 and 12 of the Citizenship Rules, 2009, an application
for grant of Indian citizenship is to be submitted by the applicant to
the Collector/DM/DC within whose jurisdiction the applicant is ordinarily
a resident. The Collector/DM/DC after satisfying himself regarding
eligibility of the applicant to become a citizen of India, forwards the
application to the State Government/UT administration concerned. The
State Government/UT administration in turn forwards the application,
along with its recommendation, to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Thereafter,
the application is processed further as per the provisions of the Citizenship
Act,1955. Since initial application is submitted to the Collector/DM concerned
and a number of agencies are involved in the processing of applications for
grant of citizenship, centralized data of such applications is not maintained.
All cases received in the Ministry of Home Affairs are processed as
expeditiously as possible.
(e) to (h): This Ministry has received several representations from the
migrants from Pakistan about difficulty in renewal of their Passports and
in obtaining Renunciation Certificate from Pakistan Government. Taking
into account the difficulties being faced by such Pakistani Nationals,
State Governments/UTs were requested to furnish details of Pakistani
nationals living in respective State/UT on Long Term Visa and who entered
India before 31.12.2004. Various State Governments/UTs provided such
information in respect of 12184 Pakistani Nationals. It has been decided
that their citizenship cases would be processed on a case to case basis
considering an affidavit filed before the authority prescribed under Rule
38 of the Citizenship Rules,2009, as Renunciation Certificate. Regarding
foreign nationals who claim to be refugees, the FRROs/FROs have been
instructed to make appropriate recommendations for grant of LTV, based
on assessment on a case to case basis. This applies to all foreign
nationals in India, including Pakistan nationals.
