Indore. It’s time for celebration, as 11000 city-based Sindhis and Sikhs, who migrated from Pakistan and Afghanistan prior to December 31, 2009, get Bharatiya citizenship.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has reduced the minimum stay period of migrants of both countries from 7 years to 2.6 years. The orders in this regards were issued on Friday, November 13th.
The Narendra Modi-led BJP Government has given this gift to over 1 lakh migrant Sindhis (Hindus) and Sikhs by granting them Bharatiya citizenship, who completed 2.6 years of stay in Bharat.
General Secretary of Sindhi Samaj, Indore (Regd) Prakash Parwani said that over 11000 of both the communities, residing in the city, got the benefit.
Out of them, 6,000 have already completed 7 years stay in Bharat while the rest 5000 have completed 2.6 years of stay in Indore (Bharat).
Parwani further said that local leaders of the Sindhi community had been doing efforts for long. After, change of power at Centre, a delegation of the local Sindhi leaders led by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on July 24 and 25, respectively, in New Delhi.
The delegation acquainted both the leaders about the problems being faced by these people. The announcement made by MHA on Thursday is considered to be the outcome of those efforts.
It is to be noted that the Government of Bharat on November 13, 2014 gave a number of concessions to Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The union government also relaxed procedure for granting them Bharatiya citizenship.
Rajnath Singh, the Union Home Minister approved the proposal for manual acceptance of applications for granting Bharatiya citizenship to minority community nationals of Pakistan and Afghanistan, who entered Bharat prior to December 31, 2009.
PM fulfills his promise
The Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, during poll campaigning in West Bengal and Rajasthan, said that Pakistani and Bangladeshi Hindu refugees would be treated like Bharatiya citizens if he became Prime Minister.
One lakh in country get benefit
There are about one lakh minority community refugees from Pakistan and Afghanistan living in Bharat. While approving the concessions, the Home Minister directed the Foreigners Division of his ministry that the grievances of these applicants should be addressed.
The move came two months after the Ministry okayed the setting up of a task force to monitor and expedite the process of the citizenship and Long Term Visa (LTV) applications of such persons.
