BENGALURU: Officers in the postal department and the railways figure in two teams that will be responsible for the verification and issuing of certificates for individuals who apply for Indian citizenship. Following the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act on March 11, a gazette notification on the team to take care of the process was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The application process for it is completely online and supporting documents need to be uploaded with it. The CAA offers a route to Indian citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis who migrated from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014.
As per the notification, an Empowered Committee would be set up in the states or Union Territories. It will be headed by the Director (Census Operations) of the specific state or Union Territory and will have four members and two invitees. A government source said, “The Postmaster General of the state or Union Territory or a Postal Officer nominated by the PMG not below the rank of Deputy Secretary (Govt of India) will be a member. The jurisdictional Foreigners Regional Registration Officer, an Intelligence Bureau officer (not below rank of Deputy Secretary, Govt of India) and the State Informatics officer of National Informatics Centre of the concerned state would be the other members. “
The notification states, “The following officers would be invitees of the Empowered Committee - a representative from the office of the Principal Secretary (Home) or Additional Chief Secretary (Home) of the state government or Union Territory, a representative of jurisdictional Divisional Railway Manager of Railways.”
The ministry also announced the constitution of a District Level Committee headed by the jurisdictional Superintendent or Superintendent of Posts who will be the Designated Officer. The members of this Committee would be the District Informatics Officer or District Informatics Assistant of the district and nominee of the central government. The notification stated the invitees for the Committee would be “a representative not below the rank of Naib Tahsildar or equivalent to the Office of District Collector and Jurisdictional Station Master of Railways (subject to availability.”
Another source said, “The task of verifying the documents will be done by the Committee while administering the Oath of Allegiance electronically to the applicant keen on becoming a citizen by the Designated Officer.”
The Empowered Committee can make any inquiries it wants and also seek reports from the security agency. The Certificate of Registration will be digitally signed by the Chairman of the Empowered Committee, the notification states. It will also maintain a register containing details of the persons registered or naturalised, the notification stated.
