New Delhi: The Union home ministry on Friday set up a second empowered committee for West Bengal to expeditiously process citizenship requests received under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019. The CAA grants citizenship to immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh belonging to six minority faiths – Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian – who entered India before December 31, 2014, out of fear of religious persecution in their home countries. The newly constituted Empowered Committee in West Bengal, which shall be headed by the Deputy Registrar General, Department of Census Operations, in the state, shall take the final decision on the citizenship applications forwarded by the district-level committees after verifying documents, the home ministry said in a gazette notification issued on Friday. The original empowered committee – set up under a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in March 2024 and headed by the Director of Census Operations, West Bengal – will continue to exist. Central government sources told TOI that a new empowered committee has been formed as the number of CAA applications in the state has increased. Worksharing promises to compress processing time. West Bengal has a large number of Hindu immigrants, such as those from the Matua community. The BJP has been making major contacts with them to bolster its electoral prospects in the state. The new Authorized Committee of CAA allows certain members of the Authorized Committee notified on March 11, 2024 such as District Registration Officer of Foreigners and State Information Officer to nominate one officer each, not below the rank of Deputy Secretary. Other members such as the attached intelligence officer and the postmaster general or postal officers nominated by him remain unchanged. Like the original empowered committee, the new panel shall include a representative from the office of the Chief Secretary (Home) or Additional Chief Secretary (Home), West Bengal and a representative of the District Railway Manager as invitees.
