New Delhi, July 16: As many as 1,310 migrants in Rajasthan have been given citizenship, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. In a written reply, Rai said: "The Central government has specified that 16 districts including three districts of Rajasthan -- Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Jaipur -- and seven states have the power to grant Indian citizenship by registration or naturalisation to legal migrants belonging to six minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
"Rai said in a total of 1,310 migrants have been granted citizenship by the government of Rajasthan and the District Collectors of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Jaipur."Among 1,310, Rajasthan government granted citizenship to 82 migrants, while District Collectors of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Jaipur granted citizenship to 1113, 7 and 108 respectively," he said.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8, seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. However, the Act was got stalled in the Rajya Sabha.