Assam Government Reveals Low Turnout for Indian Citizenship Under CAA

: The Assam government informed the Assembly on Monday that only 70 people have applied for Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) so far, with citizenship granted to just six applicants. The figures were shared in a written reply during the first day of the Budget Session in response to a query raised by an MLA. The government also disclosed that 1,72,673 foreigners have been identified in Assam so far, of whom 31,786 have been deported. The Assembly was further informed that 1,572 illegal migrants have been pushed back to Bangladesh under the provisions of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, since May 2 last year. Of these, 866 were from Sribhumi district, 357 from Cachar district, while 68 were intercepted by the Railway Police before being deported. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, passed by Parliament in 2019, came into effect in March 2024 after the Centre notified the rules for its implementation. The legislation provides a fast-track route to Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. The implementation of the CAA has remained a politically sensitive issue in Assam, where the legislation triggered widespread protests over concerns that it could undermine the Assam Accord and alter the state’s demographic balance. The anti-CAA movement also witnessed incidents of violence in which several people lost their lives. Earlier, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that the number of doubtful voters among Bengali Hindus in Assam is below one lakh and that none are currently housed in detention centres. He had also stated that the number could increase after the Registrar General of India finalises the 2019 draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), following which excluded Bengali Hindu applicants would have to apply for citizenship under the CAA.