The Central Government told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that it has not taken any decision till now to prepare National Register of Citizens at the national level."Till now, the Government has not taken any decision to prepare National Register of Citizens(NRC) at national level", said a written reply given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai to Lok Sabha MP...
The Central Government told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that it has not taken any decision till now to prepare National Register of Citizens at the national level.
"Till now, the Government has not taken any decision to prepare National Register of Citizens(NRC) at national level", said a written reply given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai to Lok Sabha MP Hibi Eden.
Eden had asked whether the Government was considering the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) and the National Register of Citizens(NRC).
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said that The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was notified on December 12, 2019 and had come into force on January 10, 2020 and the people covered under the CAA may apply for citizenship after the rules are notified.
The Home Ministry also informed the Lok Sabha that 1,11,287 Indians have renounced their Indian citizenship this year until September 30. The Government also gave a tabulated chart of the number of Indians who gave up Indian Citizenship in the previous years. The numbers are :
2017 - 1,33,049
2018- 1,34,561
2019 - 1,44,017
2020 - 85,248.
According to the Government, the number of Indian nationals living in foreign countries is 1,33,83,718.
In February 2021, during the Budget Session, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had told the Lok Sabha that the time for making the rules to implement the CAA has been extended. The CAA rules are yet to be framed.
The law was passed by the Parliament in December 2019 with the stated objective of liberalizing the grant of citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis who have migrated to India before December 31, 2014, from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan fearing religious persecution. The CAA came under criticism from several quarters for excluding Muslim refugees and non-Muslim majority nations from its purview and also for leaving out other forms of persecution.
The passing of the Act coupled with the announcements about the proposal for a National Register of Citizens(NRC) triggered off country-wide protests. Around 140 petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the CAA on grounds of religious discrimination, arbitrariness and violation of secular principles.
The framing of the CAA rules is necessary to begin the process of grant of citizenship to the intended beneficiaries of the law.
Last year, the Centre had put on hold the work for National Population Register - the precursor of the NRC - till further orders citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The NPR process was otherwise scheduled to begin from April 1, 2020.