The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will soon launch a helpline number to assist applicants for Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of 2019. This service will provide toll-free assistance to applicants across India, operating from 8 AM to 8 PM.
"Helpline number to assist applicants for Indian citizenship under CAA -2019 will be launched soon. Applicants will be able to get information related to CAA-2019 by calling free of cost from anywhere in India. The service will be available from 8 am to 8 pm," MHA posted on X.
The CAA, passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2019, intends to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
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Applications for citizenship must be submitted exclusively through online channels. Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently declared the implementation of the CAA, preceding the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections schedule. Despite encountering delays in framing associated rules, the MHA has actively pursued the process, seeking extensions from parliamentary committees since 2020.=
In the past two years, over 30 district magistrates and home secretaries across nine states have been authorized to confer Indian citizenship upon eligible migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, adhering to the provisions of the Citizenship Act of 1955. According to the MHA's annual report for 2021-22, from April 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021, a total of 1,414 individuals from non-Muslim minority communities originating from the aforementioned countries were granted Indian citizenship through registration or naturalization under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
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