Question : Indian Citizenship for Displaced Persons

(a) the provision for conferring Indian citizenship to displaced people in the country;

(b) whether the displaced people from Pakistan are living in districts like Barmer-Jaisalmer etc. of Rajasthan State adjoining the international border near Pakistan;

(c) if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether a number of displaced people are still deprived of basic facilities due to non-conferring of Indian citizenship despite following all the rules and regulations formulated by the Government in this regard;

(e) if so, the details thereof;

(f) whether the Government is taking/ prepare to take specific steps/considering to provide citizenship and all related facilities to the said deprived and displaced Pakistani Nationals; and

(g) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
(SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

(a): Indian Citizenship is granted as per the provisions of The Citizenship Act, 1955 and rules made there-under to foreign nationals who make an application for Indian Citizenship in the prescribed form.

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L.S.US.Q NO. 942 FOR 24.07.2018

(b) & (c): Yes, Number of displaced/migrated people from Pakistan living on Long Term Visa(LTV) in different districts of Rajasthan is given in the enclosed Annexure.
(d) & (e): Such people who are staying on LTV are provided with the basic facilities as per the rules. Further, subject to the conditions stated therein, the minority migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have also been given other facilities such as permission to take up self employment or doing business, allowing free movement within the State/UT, transfer of LTV papers from one State/UT to another State/UT, Reduction of penalty on non-extension of short term visa/LTV on time, opening of Bank accounts, purchase of a small dwelling unit for self occupation, issuance of driving License, PAN card & Aadhar card, extension of LTV to those who could not renew their Pakistani passport etc.

(f) & (g): Government has taken various steps to provide citizenship and all related facilities to the minority migrants displaced from Pakistan. Some of these are given below:-
(i) Power to grant citizenship to such minority migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh has been delegated to District Magistrates of 16 districts and governments of 7 States to make the process simpler and faster. Ministry of Home Affairs has been in touch with the

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L.S.US.Q NO. 942 FOR 24.07.2018

district/State authorities concerned and other stakeholders and has sensitized them to expeditiously process all the pending citizenship applications of such eligible applicants.
(ii) Web portal- indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in has been launched where the applicant can file his application, upload documents and pay fees. The applicant can also receive all citizenship related services in an online manner.
(iii) Furthermore, the powers to administer oath of allegiance to such applicants has been delegated to the Sub-Divisional Magistrates(SDMs) in the absence of District Magistrate(DM)/Collector.
(iv) Fee for citizenship application and citizenship registration has been drastically reduced.



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