The Centre on Wednesday said that it has started granting citizenships under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in West Bengal, Haryana and Uttarakhand. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had notified the rules for CAA on March 11, just ahead of the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In a statement on Wednesday, the MHA said that the citizenships were granted through state-level empowered committees. “The process of granting citizenship certificates under the CAA has now commenced in West Bengal, where the first set of applications from the state were today granted citizenship by the Empowered Committee, West Bengal. Similarly, the empowered committees of the states of Haryana and Uttarakhand have also granted citizenship today to the first set of applicants in their respective states, under the CAA,” an MHA spokesperson said in a statement.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill sought to fast-track the process of granting Indian citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 9, 2019, and the Rajya Sabha, two days later. It received the President’s assent on December 12, 2019.

The move comes weeks after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had claimed that her government would not allow the CAA to be implemented in the state.

Reacting to the development, BJP IT Cell chief and co-incharge for Bengal Amit Malviya said the party would ensure that every eligible person gets citizenship. In a post on ‘X’ on Wednesday, Malviya wrote, “The process of granting citizenship certificates under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 commences in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee screamed from the rooftop that she won’t allow CAA to be implemented but could do nothing to stop it. The right to confer citizenship is exclusively in Centre’s domain and states have no locus standi in the matter. The BJP will ensure every eligible person gets citizenship. It is a civilisational commitment that the Modi government made to the people, who have been waiting for legitimacy, for decades.”

Though enacted by Parliament in 2019, the CAA could not be implemented because the rules were not notified.

“The rules envisage the manner of application form, procedure for processing applications by District Level Committee (DLC) and scrutiny and grant of citizenship by State Level Empowered Committee (EC). In pursuance of these rules, applications have been received from persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have entered India up to December 31, 2014, on account of persecution on grounds of religion or fear of such persecution,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier this month, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla had physically handed over the first set of citizenship certificates to 14 applicants. Around 300 other applicants are being given digitally signed certificates through email. “The Empowered Committee, Delhi headed by Director (Census Operation), Delhi, after due scrutiny, have decided to grant citizenship to all the applicants,” an official had said.