The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has transferred the processing of pending citizenship applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, from Empowered Committees —comprising Central government officials, including those from the Census, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and postal departments— to district Collectors in eight States and Union Territories (UTs).
The CAA was strongly opposed by the then Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal. To bypass the role of the State government in processing the applications, MHA constituted at least four Empowered Committees —two at the district level, headed by Central government officials— to clear the citizenship applications. A large number of the Matua community, comprising Hindu Namasudras with roots in Bangladesh, and an important electoral block are the intended beneficiaries of the CAA in West Bengal. Though the legislation was brought in for undocumented migrants, the Rules mentioned several documents to be provided by the applicants including a document issued by a government authority in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh following which several Matuas could not find their names in the voter list after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The committees were created days before the Assembly polls in West Bengal in April this year.
