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About 1,100 Afghans given Indian citizenship in past 3 yrs: Govt
NEW DELHI: About 1,100 people from the trouble-torn Afghanistan have been given Indian citizenship in the past three years, the government
said today.
"1,083 Afghan nationals have been granted citizenship during the last three years (ie January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2009)," Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mullappally Ramachandran, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
The grant of citizenship under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and Rules made thereunder is a multi-level and multi-agency activity.
As per rule 11 and 12 of the Citizenship Rules, 2009, an application for grant of citizenship is to be submitted by the applicant to the collector within whose jurisdiction the applicant is ordinarily a resident. It is then moved to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) by the state administration concerned for necessary actions.
"Since initial application is submitted to the collector concerned and a number of agencies are involved in the processing of applications for grant of citizenship, no centralised data base of pending cases is maintained. All cases received in the MHA are processed as expeditiously as possible," the Minister said.